Indian PM’s party in tight race as voting opens in Bihar

Samastipur, India // India’s poorest state, Bihar, began voting on Monday in a high-stakes election that prime minister Narendra Modi hopes will help his government push through a faltering reform drive.

The Indian leader, who has promised billions of dollars for development in Bihar, urged people to come out and vote “in large numbers” as polls opened in the first phase of the election.

“I want jobs for the young people of Bihar,” he told a campaign rally on Monday. “Bihar must become the strength of our nation.”

Mr Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won a landslide victory in general elections last year, but the reforms it promised have been blocked in the upper house of parliament, where it lacks a majority.

The prime minister’s National Democratic Alliance is hoping to wrest control of Bihar state with a promise of economic development in a state where two-thirds of people lack access to electricity.

“What is most important for us is jobs,” college student Sangeeta said outside a polling booth in Bihar on Monday.

“If there are jobs, the youth won’t have to leave the state and go elsewhere for employment.”

Women dressed in black burkhas and young men holding identity cards stood in line outside a polling station as voting began in the district of Begusarai, about 100 km east of Patna, the state capital.

“We are voting for development,” said one voter, Siya Ram Singh, as he left the polling station. “Our villages are not developed, all the attention has been focused on towns.”

About 67 million people are registered to vote in India’s third most-populous state over the next month in an election spread over five phases that will test the appeal of Mr Modi’s policies aimed at industrialisation and creating jobs. Votes will be counted on November 8.

Mr Modi’s ruling Hindu nationalist party is not in power in Bihar. The election could give him the strength to push through planned reforms nationwide by boosting his party’s numbers in the upper house of parliament, where it is now in a minority.

Since taking office last year, Mr Modi has struggled to build support in parliament for an ambitious overhaul of the economy.

“This is a crucial, crucial election for Modi,” said S Chandrasekharan, director of the South Asia Analysis Group in New Delhi.

“His prestige is on the line. If his party does well, it’ll be a huge boost to his credibility. If it doesn’t, he will be a much diminished figure.”

Victory in Bihar will help Mr Modi as lawmakers in parliament’s upper house are picked on the basis of parties’ strength in state assemblies.

Opinion polls are divided on the outcome, but some show Mr Modi may struggle to capture the state.

Mr Modi has visited 13 times over the last three months to deliver speeches, as he tries to win power in a region where caste allegiances traditionally decide elections.

* Agence France-Presse and Reuters