VARANASI, India, June  1, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - India's Hindu-nationalist Prime
Minister Narendra Modi looked set to win a third straight landslide election
victory on Saturday at the close of a six-week general election bedevilled by
searing heatwaves.

       Results will be formally announced on Tuesday but Modi's victory has long
been treated as a foregone conclusion by analysts, in large part due to his
aggressive championing of India's majority faith.

       Exit polls showed he was well on track to triumph and Modi himself was
certain he had prevailed, saying he was confident that "the people of India
have voted in record numbers" to re-elect his government.

       "They have seen our track record and the manner in which our work has
brought about a qualitative change in the lives of the poor, marginalised and
downtrodden," he said on social media platform X.

       An exit poll from broadcaster CNN-News18 forecast Modi's ruling Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) and its coalition allies to win 355 seats, well above the
272 needed for a majority in the lower house.

       However, such forecasts have proven unreliable in the past at capturing
public sentiment in a country with nearly a billion eligible voters.

       Many in Modi's constituency of Varanasi who cast their votes on Saturday
were nonetheless excited at the prospect of his return to power.

       "I voted for growth and development of my country," Varanasi resident
Brijesh Taksali told AFP outside a polling station where he cast his ballot to
re-elect the 73-year-old premier.

       Varanasi is the spiritual capital of the Hindu faith, where devotees from
around India come to cremate deceased loved ones by the Ganges river.

       It was one of the final cities to vote in India's long election, and where
public support for Modi's ever-closer alignment of religion and politics burns
brightest.
       
       - 'Politics of temples' -
       
       Modi presided over the inauguration this year of a grand temple to the
deity Ram, built on the grounds of a centuries-old mosque in Ayodhya razed by
Hindu zealots in 1992.

       Construction of the temple fulfilled a longstanding demand of Hindu
activists and was widely celebrated across the country with back-to-back
television coverage and street parties.

       The ceremony, and numerous other chest-beating demonstrations of fidelity
to India's majority religion over the past decade, have left many among the
country's 200 million-plus minority Muslim community uneasy about their futures.

       Modi himself made a number of strident comments about Muslims on the
campaign trail, referring to them as "infiltrators".

       He had also accused the motley coalition of more than two dozen opposition
parties contesting the poll against him of plotting to redistribute India's
wealth to its Muslim citizens.

       Janesar Akhtar, a Muslim clothesmaker working in Varanasi's famed
embroidery workshops, told AFP that the BJP's sectarian campaigning was an
unfortunate distraction from India's chronic unemployment problems.

       "The Modi government has been busy with the politics of temples and
mosques," the 44-year-old said.

       "He is supposed to give us jobs and not tensions."
       
       - 'A lot more respect' -
       
       Political analyst Ramu Manivannan told AFP that Saturday's exit polls gave
a strong indication that Modi would return to power.

       But he cautioned that their forecasts were not definitive given a track
record of predictions that diverged widely from final results.

       "Even minor errors can make a big difference," he said.

       Modi's prospects were further bolstered by several criminal probes into the
bloc's leaders, which they say were orchestrated by his government.

       Western democracies have largely sidestepped concerns over rights and
democratic freedoms in the hopes of cultivating an ally that can help check the
growing assertiveness of China, India's northern neighbour and rival regional
power.

       India's rising international clout -- the country overtook Britain as the
world's fifth-biggest economy in 2022 -- has also boosted Modi's image at home.

       "People now look at India and Indians with a lot more respect," Shikha
Aggarwal, 40, told AFP while waiting to cast her vote.

       
       - 'Stay hydrated' -
    
       
       India voted in seven phases over six weeks to ease the immense logistical
burden of staging an election in the world's most populous country.

       Turnout is down several percentage points from the last national election
in 2019, with analysts partly blaming successive heatwaves across northern
India.

       Authorities said 10 poll workers had died of heatstroke in the eastern
state of Bihar on Thursday while setting up for the vote.

       Extensive scientific research shows climate change is causing heatwaves to
become longer, more frequent and more intense, with Asia warming faster than
the global average.

       A scorching sun bore down on Varanasi and its many temples and riverside
crematoriums during Saturday's vote, with afternoon temperatures peaking at 45
degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit).

       "The last few days have been very tough," said housewife Bindwasvini Devi,
who voted soon after polls opened to beat the scorching temperatures.

       "We've tried to stay hydrated and avoided going out as much as possible."