‘No one is bigger than him’: On the campaign trail with India’s popular yet divisive leader

Aligarh, India CNN —

The whir of the helicopter shakes the marquee tent’s roof and kicks up a plume of dust that swirls through the thronging crowd, announcing the arrival of the man they’ve all come to see.

Chanting his name, waving his party’s flag and quoting his slogans, in many of their eyes he can do no wrong. Narendra Modi, India’s hugely popular but deeply polarizing prime minister, has landed in the battleground state of Uttar Pradesh as he campaigns for a third consecutive term in power.

Arrival at the rally in Aligarh, a three-hour drive from New Delhi, was preceded by a cacophony of horn-honking cars, motorcycles, and trucks all muscling their way in and out of traffic with few discernible lanes.

Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state of 240 million people, is right in the heart of the nation’s “Hindi belt”, the predominantly Hindi-speaking Indian states where support for Modi and the devotion of his followers is especially strong.

Win UP, so they say, and you win India.

A Modi supporter at his rally in Aligarh, India, on April 22, 2024.

As the sun glares down on the dusty field in Aligarh and temperatures soar to 38 degrees Celsius (100 Fahrenheit), the crowd don’t seem to mind.

“Modi! Modi! Modi!” they chant, as the prime minister speaks about the BrahMos – a nuclear-capable, land-attack cruise missile jointly developed by Russia and India – that will soon be assembled in a local factory.

With nearly 970 million eligible voters, India’s ongoing weekslong election – the world’s largest democratic exercise – is seen as critical in shaping the South Asian country’s trajectory over the next five years, with Modi widely expected to win. And here in Uttar Pradesh, a sense of pride is evident among the