Muslims in India cast vote for nation's new leader
STORY: After ten years of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party rule in northern Uttar Pradesh, people in Muzaffarnagar, one of the most populous Muslim cities in the region, will be waiting to see if they will get a new leader as they went to vote in the first phase of elections.
Hindu nationalism is a key election theme, especially after Modi's consecration of a grand temple to Lord Ram in January on a site in Uttar Pradesh believed to be his birthplace, more than three decades after a Hindu mob destroyed a 16th-century mosque that had stood there, leading to nationwide religious riots.
Critics accuse Modi's government and party of treating India's 200 million minority Muslims unfairly to please their hardline Hindu base - an accusation that both deny.
Over in northwestern Bikaner, voters battled heatwave as they queued in large numbers at remote polling stations to cast their votes.
Modi aims to win 370 of the parliament's 543 seats, up from 303 in 2019, hoping for a two-thirds majority that some analysts and opposition members fear could let his party usher in far-reaching constitutional changes.
