CNN
—
The world's biggest election is considered the most consequential in decades, with the first votes cast in India's huge national polls next week that could shape the country's future.
Roughly one billion people will be eligible to decide whether to give Prime Minister Narendra Modi an unusual third consecutive term in power and extend the Bharatiya Janata Party's 10-year rule.
Under Modi, India has become the world's fastest-growing major economy, elevating the country of 1.4 billion to near-superpower status.
But India is also becoming increasingly polarized on religious lines, with critics saying that Prime Minister Modi's right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party is poised to transform the country from a secular republic to a Hindu-first state within five years of his term. They claim that they will be able to take on the responsibility of continuing the policies that have been changed.
Here's what you need to know about the biggest election in human history.
India's national elections are major democratic and logistical elections that take more than a month to complete.
Approximately 968 million people are eligible to vote, more than the populations of the United States, European Union, and Russia combined.
Given the size of the district, there is no single date for everyone to vote. Instead, voting will be rolled out across the country in seven stages, starting on April 19 and ending on June 1. All votes from the country's 28 states and eight union territories will be counted and the results will be announced on June 4.
Under a multi-party, first-come, first-served system, Indian citizens will vote to fill 543 of the 545 seats in the Lok Sabha, with the remaining two seats to be nominated by the country's president.
The party that wins a majority forms the government and appoints one of the winning candidates as prime minister.
Noah Seeram/AFP/Getty Images
Voters register at a polling station in Hyderabad on April 11, 2019.
Prime Minister Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party remain hugely popular, and he is widely expected to remain in power for another five years.
The 73-year-old was first elected prime minister in 2014 with an overwhelming majority on a platform of development and anti-corruption. He has been praised for his work implementing welfare and social reforms, which easily secured his second term in 2019, but this time it was more explicit. The platform of Hindu nationalism.
Over 67% of Indians voted in this election. This is the highest turnout in India's history.
The main challenger to the BJP is the Indian National Congress, which has ruled India for most of the 77 years since independence but is currently in stagnation.
To prevent Mr. Modi from winning further, the Congress has formed an alliance with other opposition leaders, including major regional parties. Late last month, India's National Development and Inclusion Alliance (INDIA) launched a campaign on the platform of “Save Democracy''.
Political scion Rahul Gandhi is the face of the Congress party, but other key figures include the popular leader of the Aam Aadmi Party and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
There are also regional heavyweights such as West Bengal Chief Minister and All India Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee and southern Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Muthuvel Karunanidhi Stalin, who are working in their respective states where Modi has not yet made a breakthrough. There will be a fight to prevent the Bharatiya Janata Party from taking over. Through.
Himanshu Sharma/AFP/Getty Images
Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses supporters at a campaign rally in Pushkar on April 6, 2024.
The Indian bloc has been plagued by internal strife and has yet to field a candidate for prime minister. Analysts say Mr. Modi has struggled to match the stardom and charm expected of him.
Opposition parties are also under pressure from a campaign by the Bharatiya Janata Party to weaken Prime Minister Modi's opponents.
Several prominent members of the opposition party, including Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal, have been arrested or investigated by state agencies in moves that the party has accused of being political. Congress announced that federal tax authorities had frozen his bank account and required him to pay an additional $218 million in taxes.
The BJP denies political interference.
Meanwhile, another victory for Mr. Modi would cement his place as one of India's most important and longest-serving leaders.
Prime Minister Modi's party and its allies aim to win more than 400 seats in parliament and enough votes to change India's constitution. The figure also improves the absolute majority the Congress party secured in 2019, when it won 303 seats, to 52.
Sanjeev Verma/Hindustan Times/Getty Images
Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi releases the party manifesto in New Delhi on April 5, 2024.
What are the main issues?
India is the world's largest democracy, but analysts say populist Prime Minister Narendra Modi is tightening his grip on democratic institutions after more than a decade of rule by the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Ethnic minorities, especially the country's 200 million Muslims, say they are persecuted under the Bharatiya Janata Party's Hindu nationalist policies.
Mr. Modi has also been accused of silencing critics, including a crackdown on India's independent media. In the annual World Press Freedom Index, India fell from 140th place in 2014, when Mr. Modi came to power, to 161st out of 180 countries on last year's list.
From destroying Islamic monuments to renaming cities founded by ancient Muslim rulers to revising history textbooks, the Modi government has shifted India from its secular founding values to its status as a primarily Hindu nation. This resulted in a seismic shift in values. Analysts expect the Bharatiya Janata Party's new term to take India further down this path.
Nasir Kachlou/Nurfoto/Getty Images
Flags of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Indian National Congress and Bahujan Samaj Party fly in Delhi on March 27, 2021.
Mr. Modi's supporters point to his economic record, saying India has a rapidly expanding economy and is poised to become a 21st century power. They argue that his presence on the world stage, including hosting the G20, along with the historic moon landing, cemented the country as a modern world power.
Prime Minister Modi also fulfilled many of his key promises, with his crowning achievement being the inauguration of the controversial Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir, a Hindu temple in the holy city of Ayodhya built on the site of the destroyed Babri Mosque. .
But while India's economy is growing, the world's most populous country is unable to create enough jobs for the millions of young people struggling to enter the workforce. The unemployment rate for people aged 20 to 24 was a staggering 44.4% at the end of 2023.
Farmers have also emerged as the biggest threat to the ruling party in recent years, repeatedly taking to the streets to demand stronger protections for their economic welfare, including higher fixed prices for agricultural products.
Agriculture is the main source of livelihood for about 55% of India's population, and farmers have been strongly successful in persuading Prime Minister Modi to scrap unpopular agricultural policies.
Party symbols and voting at 15,000 feet
India's elections are considered the most expensive in the world, even surpassing the US presidential election. Political parties, candidates and regulators spent up to $8.6 billion in 2019, according to the Delhi-based Center for Media Research. Spending is expected to surge even further this year.
From the high peaks of the Himalayas to the remote forests of India's central states, voting is conducted electronically at more than 1 million polling stations. Around 15 million election workers will be deployed to reach every voter in India by road, boat, camel, train and helicopter.
At 15,256 feet (4,650 meters) in the far northern state of Himachal Pradesh on the border with China, the village of Trashigang was the world's highest polling station when residents cast their votes in the 2022 state government election.
More than 8,000 candidates participated in the election in 2019. Although candidates are still being announced this year, more than 2,700 parties will be vying for seats in Sabah, including six parliamentary parties and more than 70 state parties.
Biju Boro/AFP/Getty Images
Election officials, followed by paramilitary personnel, carry electronic voting machines (EVMs) and other election materials in Lohore-Sapori, Assam, on April 10, 2019.
Each political party has a symbol assigned by the electoral commission that appears on the ballot paper. This allows dozens of political parties to differentiate themselves, while also making it easier for voters to choose in a country where about a quarter of the population is illiterate.
These are everyday items such as ceiling fans, combs, and mangoes.
The ruling BJP's symbol is a lotus flower, while the Congress party's symbol is an open palm. Mr. Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party (or Common People's Party) is shaped like a broom, signifying its origins in the anti-corruption street movement.