Modi’s struggling rivals vote as India general election resumes

NEW DELHI – Two top rivals of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi who accuse his government of targeting them in unjustified criminal probes cast their votes in New Delhi on May 25 as the country’s six-week general election resumed.

Mr Modi, 73, remains broadly popular after a decade in office and his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is widely expected to win a third term in June after a general election hit by recurrent early summer heatwaves.

But accusations that the BJP has sought to sideline its opponents via the justice system have sparked concerns from United Nations rights chief Volker Turk and rights groups over the general election’s fairness. 

Mr Rahul Gandhi, the most prominent leader of India’s opposition Congress party, cast his ballot at a polling station in New Delhi, where temperatures were forecast to reach 43 deg C.

A son, grandson and great-grandson of former prime ministers, Mr Gandhi paused after voting to take a photograph with his mother Sonia but did not speak to crowds of reporters.

The scion of a dynasty that dominated Indian politics for decades, he was convicted of criminal libel in 2023 after a complaint by a member of Mr Modi’s party.

His two-year prison sentence saw him disqualified from Parliament until the verdict was suspended by a higher court.

After voting, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, 55, leader of the opposition Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), urged Indian citizens: “Please vote, use your right to vote, and vote against dictatorship.” He was arrested in March in a long-running graft case and detained for several weeks before India’s Supreme Court granted him bail earlier in May and he returned to the campaign trail.

Investigators “had no proof and yet they jailed him”, opposition voter Yogesh Kumar, 42, said. “This is a blunt show of power.”

The Congress party is spearheading an opposition alliance of more than two dozen parties competing jointly against Mr Modi, including the AAP.

The Delhi Chief Minister’s organisation grew out of an anti-corruption movement a decade ago – its name means “common man’s party” – and has had electoral success in the Delhi region and the state of Punjab, but has struggled to establish itself as a nationwide force.

In February, the authorities froze several Congress bank accounts as part of a running dispute over income tax returns filed in 2019, a move Mr Gandhi said had severely impacted the party’s ability to contest the general election.

“We have no money to campaign, we cannot support our candidates,” the 53-year-old told reporters in March.

Mr Modi’s political opponents and international rights campaigners have long sounded the alarm on India’s shrinking democratic space.

US think-tank Freedom House said in 2024 that the BJP had “increasingly used government institutions to target political opponents”.

Heatwave ‘red alert’

India is voting in seven phases over six weeks to ease the immense logistical burden of staging a general election in the world’s most populous country.

Turnout is down several percentage points from the last national polls in 2019, with analysts blaming widespread expectations of a Modi victory as well as hotter-than-average temperatures heading into the Indian summer.

India’s weather bureau this week issued a heatwave “red alert” for Delhi and surrounding states where tens of millions of people were casting their ballots on May 25.

The India Meteorological Department warned of heightened health risks for infants, the elderly and those with chronic diseases.

Extensive scientific research shows climate change is causing heatwaves to become longer, more frequent and more intense, with Asia warming faster than the global average.

More than 968 million people are eligible to vote in the Indian general election, with the final round of polling on June 1 and results expected three days later. AFP