Here are the main issues in the election, votes in which will be counted on May 23
India will hold general elections in seven phases starting from Thursday, with about 900 million voters eligible to participate in the world’s biggest democratic exercise.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling alliance will win a thin majority, opinion polls show, with its focus on national security appearing to trump concerns over jobs and farm prices.
Here are the main issues in the election, votes in which will be counted on May 23.
Jobs : With more than half the population of 1.3 billion younger than 25 and millions joining the workforce every year, the lack of jobs created during Modi’s term is a major issue. Better job opportunities are voters’ top priority, a survey of more than 270,000 people by electoral watchdog Association for Democratic Reforms has shown. Unemployment rose to 7.2 percent in February, its highest since September 2016, data from private thinktank the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy shows.
A government report leaked to the Business Standard newspaper said unemployment in the year ending June 2018 rose to 6.1 percent, its highest in at least 45 years. The election manifesto of the main opposition Congress party promised a slew of measures to try and halve unemployment.
Muscular Nationalism : Modi’s national security record was spotlighted by an aerial clash with arch foe Pakistan, triggered by a February suicide attack in disputed Kashmir that killed 40 Indian paratroopers and was claimed by an Islamist militant group based in the neighbour.
Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) says the decision to send warplanes to Pakistan to bomb a purported training camp, in India’s first such aerial strike since 1971, is proof of Modi’s muscular stance against what New Delhi calls Islamabad’s backing for militants. Prime Minister Imran Khan has said no militant group will be allowed to operate from Pakistan’s soil for attacks abroad…
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