He cast his vote at a school in the city of Ahmedabad in his home state Gujarat
- Narendra Modi
BJP’s Narendra Modi, the man expected to be India’s next Prime Minister, has voted in his home state Gujarat in the seventh phase of the general election.
He cast his vote at a school in the city of Ahmedabad. All 26 seats are up for grabs in the state, reported BBC Online.
Transport hubs in the city are packed with people returning to their homes to vote, says the BBC’s Sanjoy Majumder.
Andhra Pradesh also goes to the polls on Wednesday for the last time as a united state before it is divided.
It is among nine states and union territories sending 139 million eligible voters to make their choice between some 1,300 candidates contesting 89 seats on Wednesday.
India’s general election, with 814 million eligible voters, is the world’s biggest exercise in democracy and the governing Congress party is battling the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for power.
But it is the BJP’s Modi who is ahead in all the opinion polls.
Frenzied crowds
Modi was greeted by frenzied crowds who lined the street and climbed the roofs of surrounding buildings as he arrived at the polling station in Ahmedabad, our correspondent reports.
“The Congress party has already conceded defeat… It is the end of the mother-son government,” he said after voting, in a reference to the Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul.
He waved to his supporters flashing victory signs as he left. The police had a difficult time keeping the surging crowd at bay as they tried to reach Mr Modi.
Our correspondent says everyone in the city is talking about Mr Modi, their chief minister for more than a decade, and the man they want to see lead India.
He is standing for election from two seats – in the Hindu holy city of Varanasi as well as from Vadodara in Gujarat. If he wins both seats, he will have to relinquish one.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
