All eyes on opposition-held southern states as India votes in second election phase

Millions of Indians began voting Friday in the second round of multi-phase national elections as Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought to galvanize voters with his assertive brand of Hindu nationalist politics.

People lined up outside polling stations as voting opened at 7 am. Turnout was expected to pick up as the day progresses.

The outcome of Friday’s voting will be crucial for Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, as the 88 constituencies up for grabs across 13 states include some of its strongholds in states like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra.

Most polls predict a win for Modi and the BJP, which is up against a broad opposition alliance led by the Indian National Congress and powerful regional parties.

Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi is running in Wayanad constituency in southern Kerala state for a second time, after he was defeated in 2019 elections by Smriti Irani, a BJP leader, in the northern Indian city of Amethi – a traditional stronghold for the Nehru-Gandhi family.

More than half of the seats in Friday's contests were in the southern states of Kerala and Karnataka and the northwestern state of Rajasthan.

The Hindu nationalist BJP is not popular among voters in India's wealthier and better south, particularly in Kerala, which has large religious minority communities. Modi's party has never won a seat in the Lok Sabha, India's lower house, from Kerala.

(FRANCE 24 with AP, AFP and Reuters)

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