India votes in world’s biggest ever poll

The world’s largest democratic exercise kicked off at around 07:00 local time. Some 142 million people are voting today in 18 states and two union territories, and they will elect representatives for 91 parliamentary seats.

But it’s just the first of what will be seven days – or phases – of voting.

So far, things appear to be going according to plan – even in sensitive areas like Indian-administered Kashmir, where people are voting amid tight security.

A security officer instructs waiting voters at a polling station in Ghaziabad, Uttar PradeshImage caption: A security officer instructs waiting voters at a polling station in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh
Voters of all ages and from all walks of life – from tribal women to nuns – have been turning up to participate.

He is the junior minister for external affairs in the current government.

General Singh is being challenged by Dolly Sharma, an entrepreneur turned politician running for the Congress Party, and Suresh Bansal, who represents an alliance of strong regional parties.

But he will not be easy to beat. In the last election, he trounced his rival – former Bollywood actor and state Congress party chief Raj Babbar – by more than half a million votes.

Indian women are voting in large numbers. So much so, that more women are likely to vote than men this time around, the first time ever in a general election.

The vote gender gap has already shrunk – in 2014, the turnout of women was 65.3% against 67.1% for men.

In more than two dozen local elections between 2012 and 2018, the turnout of women was higher than men in two-thirds of the states.

Political parties have begun treating women as a constituency and offering them more sops: education loans, free cooking gas cylinders and cycles for girls.

Millions of votes will be cast via electronic voting machines in the weeks to come. First used in India in 1982, they’ve been taken to far-flung districts by helicopter and even by camel!

The crucial boxes are powered by batteries and look like briefcases. This time round, a receipt will be printed every time a ballot is cast, and stored in a sealed box.

In the past, losing parties have often declared the machines were hacked – but India’s Election Commission says there’s no evidence they’ve ever been interfered with.

Our correspondent Soutik Biswas spoke to cyber experts to ask: Are fears of a mass hack credible?

Nizamabad is the only constituency to use 12 voting machines – that’s how many it took to log the names of every candidate.

Almost all of them are farmers – and they are contesting as independents as a form of protest. They say their demand for higher crop prices has been repeatedly ignored.

India’s deepening agrarian crisis is a crucial election issue – farm incomes have stagnated because of a crop glut and declining commodity prices, leaving farmers in debt and angry.