Some 900 million people were eligible to vote in India's multi-stage electionKOLKATA - Voting ended Sunday in India's most acrimonious election in decades that will decide whether Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi gets a second term in power. Modi's constituency in Varanasi, the holy city in Uttar Pradesh state, was also among those to vote. But most attention has focused on the BJP campaign to project Modi's strongman image, playing up recent cross-border air strikes against Pakistan. Modi and Gandhi have hurled insults at each other on a near daily basis with the prime minister calling his rival a "fool" while Gandhi derides Modi as a "thief". Pollsters say Modi remains personally popular but his party's overall majority is at risk from a backlash against the government.

Source: Bangkok Post May 19, 2019 13:41 UTC