Indians vote early in fifth phase of polls to avoid blistering heat
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Women wait to enter a polling station to cast their votes in Howrah district of West Bengal state, India, on May 20.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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MUMBAI - Indians voted on May 20 in the fifth phase of a mammoth general election, with film actors and sports celebrities among the thousands who turned out early in a bid to avoid scorching afternoon heat in the financial hub of Mumbai.
Three hours before polls closed, about 48 per cent of voters had cast their ballots in the world’s largest election, which began on April 19, as weather officials warned of more days of heatwaves than usual through the torrid summer.
Votes will be counted on June 4, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi expected to win a rare third consecutive term.
Voters at a polling station in a tiny lane in central Mumbai waited for hours in snaking queues that advanced slowly.
“It is claustrophobic, and people are falling sick,” said housewife Shalini Pawar, 42, who queued for three hours. One woman nearly fainted in the heat, she added, calling for the authorities to provide drinking water to those waiting.
Nearly a billion people are eligible to vote in India’s general election. After a poor initial turnout in early phases, more exercised the franchise to take the average of the first four rounds to 66.95 per cent, with 69 per cent voting in the fourth phase on May 13.
The May 20 phase has the least number of seats being contested, with 89.5 million voters picking representatives for 49 seats.
Several high-profile candidates are in the fray on May 20, including Defence Minister Rajnath Singh from Lucknow and Trade Minister Piyush Goyal from Mumbai – cities that have suffered from a dismal voter turnout in the past.
The Election Commission on May 19 specifically called upon residents of those cities “to erase the stigma” of urban apathy.
Mumbai is also home to the Hindi film industry, popularly called Bollywood, where the voters include film stars such as Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, Aamir Khan, Kareena Kapoor Khan and Ranveer Singh.
Still, with three hours left to the end of voting, just 36 per cent to 39 per cent of eligible voters had turned out across the city’s six constituencies.
Gandhi family bastions
Two boroughs of the Congress Party’s Nehru-Gandhi dynasty in the politically crucial Uttar Pradesh are also going to the polls, with scion Rahul Gandhi contesting in Raebareli, in addition to Wayanad in the south, which has already voted. India allows candidates to contest multiple constituencies but represent only one.
Mrs Sonia Gandhi, Congress Party chief and former lawmaker from Raebareli, made an emotional appeal to voters, asking them to vote for her son in a region that the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) has dominated in the last 10 years.
Mrs Smriti Irani, minister for women and child development, is contesting from Amethi. In 2019, she defeated Mr Rahul Gandhi in a seat his family had held continuously for the last four decades.
Former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir state Omar Abdullah is contesting from Baramulla, one of three seats in the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley that neighbouring Pakistan has claimed for decades and was roiled by an insurgency.
Poor voter turnout became a concern for the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party initially, and analysts believe the low numbers cast doubts on the landslide victory it and its allies sought.
But queues lengthened outside polling booths in Mumbai and Bolangir in the eastern state of Odisha after the weather department forecast maximum temperatures to rise between 2 deg C and 4 deg C.
“The BJP has not fielded the right candidate for the Lok Sabha, but we are voting... with Modi in mind,” said 55-year-old Odisha farmer Girish Mishra, referring to the Lower House of Parliament.
Mr Modi has been accused by opponents of targeting minority Muslims to please hardline voters.
Central Reserve Police Force officials stand guard on a street before voting begins during the fifth phase of India’s general election, in Mumbra, on the outskirts of Mumbai, on May 20.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Mr Modi has repeatedly accused the Congress Party of planning to extend welfare benefits to Muslims at the expense of disadvantaged tribal groups and Hindu castes, a claim the Congress has denied.
In a recent television interview aired after the fourth phase, Mr Modi said it was his resolve to “not do Hindu-Muslim (in politics)”.
The opposition India alliance, consisting of Congress and a dozen political parties, got a major boost after fierce Modi critic and chief minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal was given temporary relief by the court and allowed to campaign in the election. REUTERS
