India’s General Election

       What to Know ？？Why the Vote Takes So Long ？？Modi’s Growing Power ？？Opposition’s Failures ？？Campaigning With A.I.

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       Modi’s Power Keeps Growing, and India Looks Sure to Give Him More

       Few doubt the popular prime minister will win a third term in voting that starts Friday. His strong hand is just what many Indians seem to want.

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       To Narendra Modi’s legions of supporters, he is a magnetic figure and a powerful orator, with an image as a tireless, incorruptible worker for India.Credit...Atul Loke for The New York Times

       By Mujib Mashal

       Mujib Mashal followed Narendra Modi on the campaign trail in the important Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra while reporting this article.

       April 19, 2024

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       As he campaigns across India for an election that began on Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks of his insatiable ambitions in terms of dinner-table appetite.

       Roofs over heads, water connections, cooking gas cylinders — Mr. Modi reads down the menu of what he calls the abundant “development” he has provided to India’s poor. But he’s not stopping there. “What Modi has done so far is just the appetizer,” he said at one stop, referring to himself in the third person, as he often does. “The main course is yet to come.”

       To Mr. Modi’s legions of supporters, a third term would bring more of what they find so appealing in him. He is that rare breed of strongman who keeps an ear to the ground. He is a magnetic figure and a powerful orator. He has built an image as a tireless, incorruptible worker for a country on the rise.

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       But to his critics, Mr. Modi’s talk of a “main course” is an alarm bell for the future of the world’s largest democracy.

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       Mr. Modi at a rally in the Indian state of Maharashtra this month. His critics’ alarm bells about democracy are barely being heard.Credit...Atul Loke for The New York Times

       Mr. Modi, 73, enters the election a heavy favorite, his party’s grip over India’s more populous northern and central heartlands firmer than ever, the opposition in the same decisive geography even more diminished. Yet even with his place as India’s unrivaled leader seemingly secured, he has carried out a crackdown on dissent that has only intensified.

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       Mujib Mashal is the South Asia bureau chief for The Times, helping to lead coverage of India and the diverse region around it, including Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan. More about Mujib Mashal

       A version of this article appears in print on April 20, 2024, Section A, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: As Modi’s Power Grows, India Cedes Him More. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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