NEW DELHI: Indians began voting Saturday in the last round of a six-week-long national election that is a referendum on Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decade in power.
The election is considered one of the most consequential in India’s history. If Modi wins, he’ll be only the second Indian leader to retain power for a third term after Jawaharlal Nehru, the country’s first prime minister.
The seventh round of voting in 57 constituencies across seven states and one union territory will complete polling for all 543 seats in the powerful lower house of parliament. Nearly 970 million voters — more than 10 percent of the world’s population — were eligible to elect a new parliament for five years. More than 8,300 candidates ran for the office.
Most polls show Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party leading over the broad opposition alliance that’s challenging them, led by the Congress party. The votes will be counted Tuesday, with results expected by the end of the day.
Modi’s campaign, vying for a third-straight term, began on a platform of economic progress. He promised to uplift the poor and turn India into a developed nation by 2047. But it has turned increasingly shrill in recent weeks as he escalated polarizing rhetoric in back-to-back incendiary speeches that targeted the country’s Muslim minority, who make up 14 percent of India’s 1.4 billion people.
On Thursday, after finishing his election campaign, Modi went to meditate at a memorial site honoring a famous Hindu saint who is believed to have attained enlightenment there.
When the election kicked off in April, Modi and his BJP were widely expected to clinch another term.
Since first coming to power in 2014, Modi has enjoyed immense popularity. His supporters see him as a self-made, strong leader who has improved India’s standing in the world, and credit his pro-business policies with making the economy the world’s fifth-largest.
At the same time, his rule has seen brazen attacks and hate speech against minorities, particularly Muslims. India’s democracy, his critics say, is faltering and Modi has increasingly blurred the line between religion and state.
But as the campaign ground on, his party has faced stiff resistance from the opposition alliance and its main face, Rahul Gandhi of the Congress party. They have attacked Modi over his Hindu nationalist politics and are hoping to benefit from growing economic discontent.
Pre-poll surveys showed that voters were increasingly worried about unemployment, the rise in food prices and an overall sentiment that only a small portion of Indians have benefitted despite brisk economic growth under Modi, making the contest appear closer than initially anticipated.
In this election, Modi’s BJP — which controls much of India’s Hindi-speaking northern and central parts — sought to expand their influence by making inroads into the country’s eastern and southern states, where regional parties hold greater sway.
The BJP also banked on consolidating votes among the Hindu majority, who make up 80 percent of the population, after Modi opened a long-demanded Hindu temple on the site of a razed mosque in January. Many saw it as the unofficial start of his campaign, but analysts said the excitement over the temple may not be enough to yield votes.
Instead, Modi ramped up anti-Muslim rhetoric after voter turnout dipped slightly below 2019 figures in the first few rounds of the 2024 polls.
This was seen as a tactic to energize his core Hindu voter base. But analysts say it also reflected the lack of any big-ticket national issue to help Modi propel his BJP to electoral victory, as he has done previously.
In 2014, Modi’s status as a political outsider cracking down on deep-rooted corruption won over voters disillusioned with decades of dynastic politics. And in 2019, he swept the polls on a wave of nationalism after his government launched airstrikes into rival Pakistan in response to a suicide bombing in Kashmir that killed 40 Indian soldiers.
But things are different this time, analysts say, giving Modi’s political challengers a potential boost.
“The opposition somehow managed to derail his plan by setting the narrative to local issues, like unemployment and the economy. This election, people are voting keeping various issues in mind,” said Rasheed Kidwai, a political analyst.
Voting begins in the last round of India’s election, a referendum on Modi’s decade in power
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Voting begins in the last round of India’s election, a referendum on Modi’s decade in power
- The seventh round of voting in 57 constituencies across seven states, one union territory will complete polling for all 543 seats in parliament
- If Modi wins, he’ll be only the second Indian leader to retain power for a third term after Jawaharlal Nehru, the country’s first prime minister
France’s Macron to visit Mayotte shantytowns wrecked by Cyclone Chido
- Officials in France’s poorest overseas territory have only been able to confirm 31 fatalities more than six days after the cyclone
- Some of the islands’ worst-affected neighborhoods, hillside shantytowns are largely inhabited by undocumented migrants
Officials in France’s poorest overseas territory have only been able to confirm 31 fatalities more than six days after the cyclone, the strongest to hit Mayotte in 90 years, but some have said they fear thousands could have been killed.
Some of the islands’ worst-affected neighborhoods, hillside shantytowns comprised of flimsy huts largely inhabited by undocumented migrants, have not yet been accessed by rescue workers.
Macron decided to extend his stay and spend the night in Mayotte after residents pleaded with him to do so.
“I think it’s a sign of respect and consideration that is important to me and which allows me to see a little more of what the population is going through,” he told reporters late on Thursday.
During the first day of his visit, Macron faced criticism and boos from some Mayotte residents for what they called his government’s sluggish response to the cyclone.
Macron said authorities were quickly scaling up support and called for unity. In a heated exchange with a jeering crowd in the evening, he defended the government against charges it neglects Mayotte.
“You are happy to be in France. If it wasn’t for France, you would be 10,000 times worse off,” he said, using an expletive.
Aboubacar Ahamada Mlachahi was one of many people struggling to secure basic needs.
“What matters first is water, for the children. Before fixing the houses, before fixing anything, the daily life... We need water,” he told Reuters.
The 34-year-old construction worker, who is originally from Comoros, said his house was destroyed by the cyclone and he is now squatting on a hillside at Longoni, Mayotte’s freight port.
“Everything is gone,” he said.
Undocumented migrants
Authorities have warned it will be difficult to establish a precise death toll in a territory that is home to large numbers of undocumented migrants from Comoros, Madagascar and other countries. Official statistics put Mayotte’s population at 321,000, but many say it is much higher.
Some victims were buried immediately, in accordance with Muslim tradition, before their deaths could be counted.
Three out of four people live below the national poverty line in Mayotte, which remains heavily dependent on support from metropolitan France.
Chido also killed at least 73 people in Mozambique and 13 in Malawi after reaching continental Africa, according to officials in those countries.
Malaysia to resume search for missing Flight MH370
- Flight MH370 vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014
- Malaysia engaged Ocean Infinity in 2018 to search in the southern Indian Ocean
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has agreed in principle to resume the search for the wreckage of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, its transport minister said on Friday, more than 10 years after it disappeared in one of the world’s greatest aviation mysteries.
Flight MH370, a Boeing 777 carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew, vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014.
Transport Minister Anthony Loke said the proposal to search a new area in the southern Indian Ocean came from exploration firm Ocean Infinity, which had also conducted the last search for the plane that ended in 2018.
The firm will receive $70 million if wreckage found is substantive, Loke told a press conference.
“Our responsibility and obligation and commitment is to the next of kin,” he said.
“We hope this time will be positive, that the wreckage will be found and give closure to the families.”
Malaysian investigators initially did not rule out the possibility that the aircraft had been deliberately taken off course.
Debris, some confirmed and some believed to be from the aircraft, has washed up along the coast of Africa and on islands in the Indian Ocean.
More than 150 Chinese passengers were on the flight, with relatives demanding compensation from Malaysia Airlines, Boeing, aircraft engine maker Rolls-Royce and the Allianz insurance group among others.
Malaysia engaged Ocean Infinity in 2018 to search in the southern Indian Ocean, offering to pay up to $70 million if it found the plane, but it failed on two attempts.
That followed an underwater search by Malaysia, Australia and China in a 120,000-square-kilometer area of the southern Indian Ocean, based on data of automatic connections between an Inmarsat satellite and the plane.
One killed as Russian missile strikes hit Ukraine capital
- Authorities also reported missile attacks in the southern port city of Kherson
- Moscow’s forces are advancing in the Kharkiv region that borders Russia
KYIV: One person was reported killed on Friday in a Russian missile strike on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, where AFP staff saw smoke rise over parts of the city after a series of explosions.
“According to preliminary reports, one person was killed,” the head of the city’s military administration, Sergiy Popko, said on Telegram.
Popko said Russian forces had used Kinzhal and Iskander missiles in the strike at around 7:00 a.m. .
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that, “as a result of the enemy attack,” two people were hospitalized and debris fell in four areas, setting cars and buildings alight.
“Emergency services are working everywhere,” he said on Telegram.
The blasts came after the Ukrainian air force warned of an impending ballistic missile attack.
“Ballistic missile from the north!” the air force said on Telegram.
Russian President Vladimir Putin at a press conference on Thursday suggested a “hi-tech duel” over Kyiv to test his claims that Russia’s new hypersonic ballistic missile, dubbed Oreshnik, is impervious to air defenses.
Ukrainian authorities also reported missile attacks in the southern port city of Kherson, where one person was killed and six injured, as well as several other Ukrainian cities and towns.
‘You always feel vulnerable’: Britons impacted by no-fault evictions
- This so-called no-fault eviction is a feature of English law that could soon be abolished under a new rental bill
- Campaigners have warned that landlords are ramping up these types evictions ahead of the ban being passed into law
LEWES, United Kingdom: Sitting by the fireplace in her house in the south of England, Jackie Bennett recalls the shock she felt when she received out-of-the-blue an eviction notice giving her just two months to move out.
This so-called no-fault eviction, which sees Bennett kicked out of her home without cause, is a feature of English law that could soon be abolished under a new rental bill.
But campaigners have warned that landlords are ramping up these types evictions ahead of the ban being passed into law.
“I’ve canceled some of my work. I’ve canceled my Christmas plans and my holiday plans,” the 55-year-old artist explained, as she pushed back tears.
Hanging across her apartment are colorful crocheted tapestries that mask the damp that covers the walls of her house in Lewes, southern England.
Her landlord explained to her by email that she wanted to sell the property after Bennet had already received the eviction notice.
As a tenant, “you always feel vulnerable,” she said.
No-fault evictions were introduced in 1988 by Margaret Thatcher’s government as part of a push to deregulate the rental market to attract more private landlords.
Under the new Renters’ Rights Bill, currently under consideration by the Labour majority parliament, landlords will have to provide a reason in advance for evicting tenants, such as to reclaim the property to move into or unpaid rent.
The bill would give tenants a longer notice period in the event of an eviction, giving them more time to plan their next housing arrangement.
It marks an important step in protecting tenants against being evicted after they make reasonable complaints to landlords, said Ben Twomey, chief executive of tenants rights organization Generation Rent.
These instances, termed “revenge evictions” by campaigners, are a “massive problem” in England, he added.
While he supports the reforms, Twomey warned that in the absence of a rental price caps, tenants could still be evicted “through the back door” by landlords hiking rents to unreasonable levels.
Rents have already jumped over nine percent in the past year in the UK, according to official data.
Between July and September this year, 8,425 households in England where taken to court over no-fault eviction notices, the highest number in eight years, said Twomey, citing Ministry of Justice figures.
As the bill comes closer to being passed into law, more landlords have been ramping up the use of no-fault evictions, according to Paul Shamplina, founder of Landlord Action, a company that helps landlords repossess properties.
“That will increase until the ban date comes in, because landlords are worried about how will they get their property back,” he added.
Alexandra Casson, who works in television production in London, was also served one of these eviction notices after she refused her landlord’s attempt to raise the rent by over 50 percent.
She denounced it as “an absolute brazen attempt to extort tenants.”
“They forget that there are humans that live in the property assets that they shuffle around,” said the 43-year-old, based in East London’s popular Dalston neighborhood.
Casson, a member of the London Renters Union, welcomed a measure in the new bill that would extend the notice period to vacate a property from two months to four months.
Although, she predicts that it’ll take her around six months to finalize purchasing a new property, and even then, she considers herself one of the lucky ones.
Sri Lanka navy rescues boat of 100 Rohingya refugees
- The group, including 25 children, were taken to Sri Lanka’s eastern port of Trincomalee
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s navy said Friday it had rescued 102 Rohingya refugees from war-torn Myanmar adrift in a fishing trawler off the Indian Ocean island nation, bringing them safely to port.
The group, including 25 children, were taken to Sri Lanka’s eastern port of Trincomalee, a navy spokesman said, adding that food and water had been provided.
“Medical checks have to be done before they are allowed to disembark,” the spokesman said.
The mostly Muslim ethnic Rohingya are heavily persecuted in Myanmar and thousands risk their lives each year on long sea journeys, the majority heading southeast to Malaysia or Indonesia.
But fisherman spotted the drifting trawler off Sri Lanka’s northern coast at Mullivaikkal at dawn on Thursday.
While unusual, it is not the first boat to head to Sri Lanka — about 1,750 kilometers (1,100 miles) across open seas southwest of Myanmar.
The Sri Lankan navy rescued more than 100 Rohingya refugees in distress on a boat off their shores in December 2022.
The navy spokesman said Friday that language difficulties had made it hard to understand where the refugees had been intending to reach, suggesting that “recent cyclonic weather” may have pushed them off course.
Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fled Myanmar for neighboring Bangladesh in 2017 during a crackdown by the military that is now the subject of a United Nations genocide court case.
Myanmar’s military seized power in a 2021 coup and a grinding war since then has forced millions to flee.
Last month, the UN warned Myanmar’s Rakhine state — the historic homeland of many Rohingya — was heading toward famine, as brutal clashes squeeze commerce and agricultural production.
