Date set for largest democratic election in human history

CNN —

Polls in the world’s largest democracy India will open on April 19, the country’s election commissioner announced on Saturday, setting the stage for a nationwide election expected to see Prime Minister Narendra Modi clinch a rare third consecutive term.

An estimated 960 million people in a country of 1.4 billion are eligible to vote in the widely anticipated polls that will take a month to complete.

Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is expected to secure another five years in power, ruling an India that has become increasingly polarized along religious lines.

Polling will unfold over seven phases around the country ending on June 1.

Indians will be voting for 543 seats in the 545-seat lower house of parliament, called the Lok Sabha, and the other two seats in the house are nominated by the president.

All the votes – from the country’s 28 states and eight union territories – will be counted on June 4, the commission said at a press conference in New Delhi.

Under Modi’s leadership, India is poised to become a 21st-century powerhouse as its economy rapidly expands.

But the populist leader, analysts say, has tightened his grip on its democratic institutions in a way not seen since the 1970s under the iron-fisted rule of Indira Gandhi, with minorities feeling persecuted under the BJP’s Hindu-nationalist policies and dissent muzzled.

Going against Modi is the main opposition Indian National Congress, which has governed the country for much of the 77 years since independence and last year formed an alliance with other parties. The Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, or INDIA, marked a significant step for an opposition struggling to regain national significance.

But cracks in the alliance have