Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday embarked on a spiritual break as India’s acrimonious marathon election wound to a close after almost seven weeks awash with insults, violence and fake news.
On the eve of the seventh and final day of voting in the world’s biggest democratic exercise, local media reported that Modi, 68, would spend some time in a “mediation cave.”
Having addressed more than 140 election rallies across the country, Modi yesterday arrived in Dehradun, the capital of the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand famous for its Hindu pilgrimage sites.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Modi’s hectic campaign, which started in March, has seen him address on average three rallies a day, criss-crossing the length and breadth of the geographically diverse nation of 1.3 billion people.
From Dehradun, Modi traveled to Kedarnath and was due to go on to Badrinath to pay his respects at shrines dedicated to the Hindu deity Lord Shiva.
However, it was not all relaxation, with Modi also expected to review reconstruction projects after floods in Uttarakhand, which in 2013 killed about 6,000 people.
Photo: Bloomberg
With results due on Thursday next week, Modi is seeking a second term from India’s 900 million voters after leading his right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party to power in 2014.
Opinion polls, although unreliable, predict that the Bharatiya Janata Party might lose seats this time, despite its formidable campaigning machine, meaning that it might need a coalition to form a new government.
Modi’s main rival is Rahul Gandhi, 48, of the Congress Party, the scion of India’s famed Nehru-Gandhi dynasty.
The rival parties have thrown almost daily barbs at each other, accusing each other of corruption, nepotism and fake nationalism.
As in previous elections, the polling has been marked by violence, most recently in the state of West Bengal where tens of thousands of security forces have been deployed following street clashes between the Bharatiya Janata Party and rival supporters of the regional Trinamool Congress Party.
The election has seen a flood of “fake news,” including doctored images and edited video clips, with both main parties using legions of people to manage social media.
“The likelihood that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party wins a majority by itself is falling (10 percent, from 15 percent previously),” a report by the political risk consultancy Eurasia Group said on Friday.
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