What happened in India during the seven weeks of the world’s biggest elections?

Over the past seven weeks, the India has carried out its general elections, the largest on the planet and a logistical challenge in this country-continent of more than 1.4 billion inhabitants, which concludes tomorrow with the counting of the votes.

The general elections elected the 543 seats in the lower house of the Indian Parliament. These are the highlights of this 44-day process:

The governor Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of the prime minister, the Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi, is seeking a third consecutive term at the head of the most populous democracy on the planet and the fifth largest economy in the world, although with challenges ahead such as growing unemployment and skyrocketing inflation.

The long duration of the elections, which lasted for 44 days from their beginning, on April 19, to their end, last Saturday, gave rise to a marathon electoral campaign in which the debate evolved continuously, going from self-promotion initial to the excessive attacks in just a few weeks.

To woo the nearly 970 million voters called to vote in the elections, Modi and the rest of the BJP leaders began their re-election campaign by focusing on the government’s achievements over the last ten years.

But shortly after the first phase of voting and after a low turnout, his campaign began to focus on the country’s Muslim minority, the usual safe passage of Modi to incite Hindu nationalism, which is their main source of votes.

Since then, the prime minister began using openly Islamophobic language at public rallies, accusing India’s opposition Congress Party (INC) of conspiring to redistribute the nation’s wealth among ‘infiltrators’ and ‘those who have more children’; in reference to the 200 million Muslims residing in India.

He INCwho sought to establish himself as the savior of the Indian Constitution against the supposedly dictatorial tendencies of Modidenied these accusations and denounced the prime minister for betting on divisive community policies to win the support of the Hindu majority, which constitutes 80% of the population.

In parallel to this debate, another episode of tension was taking place in the capital between the central government and the opposition due to the arrest of the head of government of New Delhi, Arvind Kejriwalwho is one of the main figures of an opposition alliance of more than twenty parties created to stand up to Modi in the elections.

At the last minute, Kejriwal He obtained a bail measure that allowed him 21 days to campaign for his formation, the Common Man Party (Aam Admi Party, or AAP), which concluded yesterday with the politician’s return to prison.

If Modi’s forces win a majority of seats, the Hindu nationalist leader will be the second prime minister to win a third consecutive term in the history of this country, preceded only by Jawaharlal Nehruone of the greatest independence leaders who ruled India for 17 years.

These elections were also marked by high temperatures, which have exceeded 50 degrees in some parts of the country, and were partly responsible for the drop in participation throughout the elections.

More than a dozen electoral officials have died, especially in recent weeks from cases attributed to heatstroke, raising doubts about the insufficient measures deployed by the electoral regulator to deal with the heat wave.

The Election Commission of India revealed this Monday that 642 million people cast their votes in the last month and a half of elections, which also saw a notable reduction in violent incidents.

Electoral Commission officials will begin counting the votes from the electronic voting machines on Tuesday starting at 08:00 local time (02:30 GMT), with the count being carried out district by district simultaneously and without a cut-off time.