As India votes, Modi’s BJP is targeting opposition seats to gain a supermajority

As India votes in the six-week general election, the image of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi adorns everything from packets of rice distributed to the poor to large posters in cities and towns.

His Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is banking on the prime minister’s popularity as he pushes for a supermajority in the Indian parliament. The message: Modi has delivered economic growth, infrastructure upgrades and an improved position for India in the world.

But as the Hindu nationalist party and its allies target 400 of the 543 seats in India’s lower house of parliament — up from the 352 they won in 2019 — they are also deploying local tactics in some crucial constituencies they hope to wrest from the opposition.