India starts voting as Narendra Modi seeks third term as prime minister

Nearly 970 million voters — more than 10% of the world’s population — will elect 543 members to the lower house of Parliament for five years during the staggered elections that run until June 1

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi Picture: Manish Swarup/AP

Millions of Indians began voting on Friday in a six-week election that is a referendum on Narendra Modi, the populist prime minister who has championed an assertive brand of Hindu nationalist politics and is seeking a rare third term as the country’s leader.

In the first 21 states to hold votes, voters began queuing up at polling stations hours before they were allowed in at 7am, from the Himalayan mountains to the tropical Andaman Islands.