India PM Modi’s BJP seeks to oust anti-corruption party in state polls

Thousands voted in the Indian capital’s state legislature election on Wednesday, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist party tried to unseat a powerful regional group that has ruled New Delhi for over a decade.

Voters went to polling booths on a cold, wintry day to cast their ballots across the sprawling capital. Manish Sisodia, a key Aam Aadmi Party leader, and others offered prayers in a temple before voting.

Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party is up against the AAP, led by Arvind Kejriwal, which runs New Delhi and has built a vast support base on its welfare policies and an anti-corruption movement. Kejriwal, a popular crusader against corruption, suffered a setback as he himself faced corruption allegations.

The AAP won 62 out of 70 seats in a landslide victory in the last election, held in 2020. leaving BJP with only eight and the Congress party with none. The AAP had also swept the 2015 state elections, winning 67 seats, with the BJP taking three.

Modi and Kejriwal have both campaigned vigorously in roadshows with thousands of supporters tailing them. They have offered to revamp government schools and provide free health services and electricity, and a monthly stipend of over 2,000 rupees (US$25) to poor women.