India: millions cast ballots in third phase of national elections
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00:00India's Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, has voted early as the third phase of the country's
00:04massive general election got underway.
00:07Modi has called for a strong turnout in the vote, although he has also warned that the
00:11scorching summer heat could have an effect.
00:14The ballots are set to be counted on June 4th.
00:18Modi is seeking a rare third straight term in a vote that pits his Hindu nationalist
00:22BJP party against an alliance of more than two dozen opposition groups.
00:27We're going to talk more about this with Pavni Mittal, who joins me live from New Delhi.
00:31Pavni, what more can you tell us?
00:33Good evening.
00:36So polling is set to end in just under an hour.
00:40And if you combine the three phases that have been conducted till now, more than half of
00:45India's of the seats in India's parliament have gone to polls.
00:50And of course, there are four more phases to go.
00:54If you look at today's phase, then this is a phase where the BJP has a huge advantage.
00:59In fact, in the last general election in 2019, it was a clean sweep.
01:05Part of this has to do with the state of Gujarat that voted today.
01:08This is in Western India.
01:10And it's also where Prime Minister Modi served as chief minister for more than a decade.
01:15Earlier today, he was there casting his vote in the election.
01:20The other state to watch is the state of Maharashtra, again in Western India.
01:25This is where the BJP is relying heavily on regional allies to, you know, rack up its
01:31votes.
01:32You know, the party has set an ambitious target.
01:37It wants to cross 400 seats in parliament.
01:39And for this, it will have to outperform itself.
01:43Pavni, now Modi has been calling for this strong turnout.
01:47How has it been so far?
01:51So voter turnout today will also be closely looked at.
01:54And that's because in the first two phases, this was a cause of huge disappointment and
01:59concern.
02:00There's been a considerable dip.
02:02And the election agency has partly blamed this on the ongoing heatwave, especially in
02:08eastern and southern India.
02:10In Delhi, where I am, temperatures today reached about 42 degrees Celsius.
02:15They also say this could have to do with the fact that many of the seats that have
02:19voted till now are in urban India, where voter turnout has traditionally been lower than
02:24in rural areas.
02:26A top minister of the BJP has recently blamed this on the opposition, saying it wasn't giving
02:32the BJP tough competition and that is also impacting voter turnout.
02:36Now, some analysts are raising concerns about the rhetoric that is being used in campaigns,
02:42particularly Prime Minister Modi and the BJP.
02:46He has been accused of using Islamophobic comments to polarize the election.
02:54Some analysts have said that this is a political tactic to distract voters from economic issues,
03:00particularly high unemployment.
03:02They say that this could have also led to voter apathy and in turn impacting voter turnout.
03:09Pavni, thank you for that.
03:10Thank you, Pavni Mittal, reporting for us from New Delhi.