The World’s Largest Election Is a One-Man Show: Bloomberg

[CaptainMaverick]

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is gifted an idol of the Hindu god Rama from the Ramayana during an election campaign rally on April 14.

Photographer: Abhishek Chinnappa/Getty Images 

 

The numbers around India’s election, which starts tomorrow and runs for seven weeks, are staggering.

Nearly a billion people are eligible to vote. Thousands of candidates are expected to vie for 543 seats in the lower house of parliament. Hundreds of political parties are participating.

Yet for all the vastness of the world’s biggest democratic exercise, this year the focus is almost entirely on one man: the incumbent, Narendra Modi. His Hindu-nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party is all but certain to win its third straight election.

The BJP is again centering its campaign on 73-year-old, telling voters the prime minister is a man who delivers. And in many ways he has.

India has grown strongly under Modi. The US rivalry with China means it’s courted internationally, and companies from Apple to Tesla are making a beeline for the country. Elon Musk is expected to visit this weekend.

WATCH: Bloomberg’s Haslinda Amin breaks down the numbers of India’s election.Source: Bloomberg

Modi remains popular among India’s rural poor, in part due to benefits like cheap cooking gas and guaranteed housing as well as moves to appeal to the Hindu majority.

 

But problems are lurking. Job creation remains tepid, income inequality has risen and farm earnings has essentially remained flat. A recent poll showed rampant joblessness and inflation are voters’ two biggest concerns.

The main opposition Indian National Congress party says that under Modi India’s democracy is “an empty shell” with state institutions subservient to the government.

Still, arguments for more democracy and religious tolerance are unlikely to significantly sway voters. The opposition alliance, an unwieldy coalition of more than 20 mostly regional parties, isn’t fielding a prime ministerial candidate to go head-to-head with Modi, in part because they don’t have anyone nearly as popular.

Much could change, and India’s voters are fickle. But Modi’s route to retaining power looks clear.