India Election 2024 Live News: Modi votes in third phase of Lok Sabha polls | News about the 2024 election in India

Modi and the ruling BJP have significantly strengthened their Hindu nationalist agenda, with the incumbent prime minister using some of his most divisive rhetoric in his decade in power.

Modi has said in numerous speeches in recent weeks that women's wealth could be at risk if the opposition Congress comes to power, claiming the party would remove its “Mangalsutra” – a sacred gold chain that denotes a Hindu woman's marital status. woman indicates – taking it away and giving it away to his voters, a veiled reference to Muslims.

“The mask has come down and I think it is political compulsions that have made it so,” said Ali Khan Mahmudabad, a political science professor at Ashoka University in New Delhi, according to the Associated Press.

Changes in the BJP's campaign could also be a sign of concern over low voter turnout, which it had not expected, Mahmudabad said. According to official data, voter turnout in the first two phases was slightly lower than in the same rounds in the last election in 2019.

“In the recent elections, the BJP’s victories were linked to voter disenfranchisement [to vote]said Mahmudabad. “There could be some fatigue, anti-incumbency or even disillusionment,” which has led the BJP to sharpen its rhetoric.