Who will lead India? World’s largest nation begins a mammoth day of vote counting after weeks-long election

CNN —

Hundreds of millions of votes cast, more than six weeks of polling, and billions of dollars spent: India on Tuesday will declare a new leader after a mammoth nationwide election that has become a referendum on the last decade of leadership by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

His powerful right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is seeking a supermajority in the lower house of parliament – or Lok Sabha – a goal which, if successful, would give it an unstoppable mandate to further enshrine its Hindu-nationalist agenda, deepening India’s move away from its secular foundations.

Given India’s strategic position in Asia and its booming economy, the election result will reverberate far beyond its borders, capturing the attention of the United States, China and Russia in particular.

Some 642 million people cast their vote in the world’s largest election, as swathes of the country was blanketed in searing heat, making people sick and killing dozens.

Hoping to unseat India’s charismatic but divisive leader is an alliance of more than two dozen parties, including the country’s main opposition, the Indian National Congress, which is running on a platform of reducing inequality and upholding democratic institutions which it argues are at risk.

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi shows his ink-marked finger after casting his vote outside a polling station in Ahmedabad, India, on May 7, 2024.

Since assuming power in 2014, Modi has attained levels of popularity not seen in decades, owing to a raft of development and welfare programs, mixed with a strident brand of Hindu nationalism in a country where about 80% of the population are followers of the polytheistic faith.

Under Modi’s leadership, the country of 1.4 billion people