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Modi's struggling rivals to vote as India election resumes
Narendra Modi, 73, remains roundly popular after a decade in office.
Representative Image. / iStock photo
India's six-week election resumed on May.25, with top rivals of Prime Minister Narendra Modi due to vote in the capital New Delhi after accusing him of unjustly targeting them with criminal probes.
Modi, 73, remains roundly popular after a decade in office and his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is widely expected to win a third term next month after a poll hit by recurrent early summer heatwaves.
His prospects have been further bolstered by several criminal investigations into his opponents, sparking concerns from UN rights chief Volker Turk and rights groups over the poll's fairness.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, 55, one of the top members of a disparate cross-party alliance hoping to unseat the BJP, was jailed for weeks this year as part of a long-running graft case.
The Supreme Court bailed Kejriwal earlier this month and he has returned to the campaign trail, urging Indians to vote against what he called a nascent "dictatorship".
"Modi has started a very dangerous mission," he said soon after his release. "Modi will send all opposition leaders to jail."
Kejriwal was set to vote in Delhi, where polls opened at 7 am on May.25, along with Rahul Gandhi, whose Congress party is spearheading the opposition alliance of more than two-dozen parties competing jointly against Modi.
Gandhi, the scion of a dynasty that dominated Indian politics for decades, and the son, grandson and great-grandson of former prime ministers, was convicted of criminal libel last year after a complaint by a member of Modi's party.
His two-year prison sentence saw him disqualified from Parliament until the verdict was suspended by a higher court.
In February, authorities froze several Congress bank accounts as part of a running dispute over income tax returns filed five years ago, a move Gandhi said had severely impacted the party's ability to contest the election.
"We have no money to campaign, we cannot support our candidates," the 53-year-old told reporters in March.
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