The Story
Today, India starts voting in the world's largest election.
Seems like a big deal.
It is. 900 million people are eligible to vote. More than 8,000 candidates are running for Parliament. Whichever party gets the most votes chooses the prime minister. The current PM is Narendra Modi. And this election is being seen as a referendum on his five years in office.
Tell me about him.
He came to power when his Hindu nationalist party overwhelmingly won in 2014 – the biggest single-party majority in decades. Back then, Modi's campaign was focused on improving the economy. This time around, it's about keeping India safe.
Who's the competition?
Rahul Gandhi, leader of the opposition party. No, he's not related to that Gandhi – though his family tree could give "Game of Thrones" a run for its money. (His great-grandfather was the country's first PM, and his grandmother was its first female PM.) The opposition isn't expected to win, but it's putting up a fight.
Got it. So what are the issues at play here?
Kashmir…the disputed region that both India and Pakistan control parts of. There was a flare-up earlier this year that many were worried could escalate – especially since the two sides are both nuclear-armed countries. Modi has used the recent tension as an opportunity to spur nationalist sentiment.
Corruption...Gandhi's party had been accused of various scandals for years. And many have praised Modi for cracking down on corruption when he came to power. But many take issue with how he's handled...
The economy…even though India has one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, the unemployment rate is growing. Farmers have especially been struggling. The opposition's pitch: create more jobs and give poor farmers and families an assist through subsidies.
Division…between upper and lower castes as well as between Muslims and Hindus. Modi's party has a lot of backing from India's upper castes, and is perceived to have alienated lower castes and Muslims. In the past few years, there's been increasing concern over violence by extremist Hindus against Muslims. Modi and the opposition party have condemned it.
But to backtrack, you said the election starts today. When does it end?
In May. There are seven voting phases over a six-week period (and we thought our election cycle was long). There'll be about 1 million polling stations around the country.
theSkimm
India is home to close to one-fifth of the world's population. And even though it's not one of the wealthiest countries, it plays a role in everything from nuclear security to climate change. So the whole world has a stake in what goes down.
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