In the fifth phase of India’s massive general elections, thousands of voters turned out early on Monday to avoid the intense heat in the country’s financial hub, Mumbai, as well as the vast states of Uttar Pradesh and Odisha.
The world’s biggest election got underway on April 19 in the midst of scorching summer temperatures; the meteorological service was forecasting more days with heatwaves than normal for the duration of the season.
On June 4, votes will be tallied, and it is anticipated that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will secure an uncommon third term in office.
Sangeeta Rege, 46, a director of a health research agency, stated, “There could have been fans and better arrangements for the ill and those with disabilities given the hot and humid conditions.”
She was speaking in response to the collapse of two elderly people at her Mumbai polling place. The city’s 33°C temperature and 71% humidity made it difficult for many people, particularly the elderly, to go outside.
There are about a billion voters in India, but more individuals used their right to vote following the early rounds’ low turnout, raising the average of the first four rounds to 66.95%, with 69% of voters casting ballots in the fourth round on May 13.
The least number of districts are expected to cast ballots on Monday, when 89.5 million people are expected to choose representatives for 49 seats.
Prominent contenders contesting on Monday comprise Defence Minister Rajnath Singh from Lucknow and Trade Minister Piyush Goyal, who is running from one of Mumbai’s six seats. Both cities have had low voter turnout in the past.
Residents of both cities were especially exhorted by the Election Commission on Sunday “to erase the stigma” of urban apathy.
“Better infrastructure and more ‘ease of living’ is at the core of our vision for Mumbai,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared last week during a campaign stop in the city.
In the huge and politically significant northern state of Uttar Pradesh, two boroughs belonging to the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty of the opposition Congress party are also voting.
Scion of the family In addition to the already-voted-in southern seat of Wayanad, Rahul Gandhi is running for Raebareli.
The minister for women’s and children’s development, Smriti Irani, is running from Amethi, where she defeated Rahul Gandhi in 2019 to occupy the seat that his family had held for the last forty years or more.
A former wrestling federation chief’s son is running for office in Kaiserganj, one of the state’s other highly anticipated contests, despite the father’s allegations of sexually abusing female wrestlers.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was initially concerned about low voter turnout, and observers think this raised questions about the party’s and its allies’ hopes for a landslide victory.
In the eastern state of Odisha, however, huge lines outgrew voting places in Mumbai and Bolangir when the weather service predicted that the maximum temperature would jump by two to four degrees Celsius.
According to 48-year-old Mumbai homemaker Jaya Roy Chowdhury, “the election aimed to ensure stability and security… plus the development of my city and country which… is happening at a rapid rate.”
Girish Mishra, an Odisha farmer, 55, said of the lower chamber of parliament, “We are voting… with Modi in mind, but the BJP has not fielded the right candidate for the Lok Sabha.”
In response to accusations from opponents that he is courting hardline voters by singling out Muslims of colour, Modi declared in a post-phase television interview that he would “not do Hindu-Muslim (in politics)”.
He has frequently claimed—a charge the opposition party has refuted—that the Congress is preparing to give welfare benefits to Muslims at the expense of underprivileged tribal tribes and Hindu castes.
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