NEW DELHI, India: Millions of Indians began voting Saturday in regional elections seen as the first major test of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party after his controversial move to ban all high-value notes last year.
Five Indian states will elect new governments over the next five weeks in a multi-phased election, with voting kicking off in northern Punjab and coastal Goa in the west.
Modi’s bold move to ban the notes that made up 86 percent of the currency was aimed at curbing widespread tax evasion, but has also dented growth and caused widespread pain to the millions of Indians who lack access to formal banking.
His personal popularity has remained high well into his first term, but the elections are being seen as a test of its endurance.
In a tweet Saturday morning, the Hindu-nationalist leader called on voters in the first phase to exercise their right to vote.
“Urging people of Punjab and Goa to turnout in record numbers and vote in the Assembly elections,” he said.
Residents were seen queueing outside polling booths across both states, where more than 40 million voters are eligible to cast their ballots to elect a total of 157 legislators.
Massive security arrangements were in place to ensure violence-free voting, with hundreds of thousands of security forces personnel on guard outside pollings stations.
Modi’s party is likely to lose out in Punjab, where it has been in power alongside its regional alliance partner since 2007, but also where a turnaround for the center-left opposition Congress Party is possible.
Rahul Gandhi, the 44-year-old Nehru-Gandhi family scion who is seen as the party’s next head, has pulled out all the stops to revive its fortunes, facing criticism after a series of state election defeats.
“It is the most important election for the Congress party which needs a victory on its own,” said Nistula Hebbar, political editor with The Hindu newspaper.
“The erosion of its political support has been spectacular. More than anyone, Rahul Gandhi needs a standalone victory to silence critics both outside and within the party,” she added.
Uttar Pradesh
But the biggest test for Modi will be in India’s most populous state Uttar Pradesh (UP), where the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won big in the 2014 general election.
The state is important because it sends the highest number of MPs to the upper house of the national parliament, where the BJP currently lacks a majority.
The northern state of Uttarakhand and Manipur in the northeast will also elect new governments, with results for all five states due on March 11.
“The immediate conclusion that can be drawn for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is whether the larger politics behind demonetization... has worked or not,” Kanchan Gupta, commissioning editor with ABP News, told AFP.
“It would also be a reflection on whether in these two-and-a-half years, the national government has been able to perform with a credibility that overwhelms the performance of individual state governments.”
Modi needs to win state elections to gain more seats in the nation’s upper house of parliament, which has blocked reforms seen as crucial to fueling the economic growth it has promised voters.
Most members of the upper house are indirectly elected by state legislatures.
A stellar performance by Modi’s party in UP propelled him to national victory in 2014 and the state offers its best chance to take more seats in the upper house.
“The BJP swept Uttar Pradesh with the largest chunk of MPs in 2014. A defeat here would signal that there has been erosion of support for Mr.Modi,” said Hebbar.
Indians go to the polls in test for Modi’s cash ban
Indians go to the polls in test for Modi’s cash ban
Explosions and sounds of aircraft heard in Kabul, hours after Afghanistan attacks Pakistan
KABUL, Afghanistan: At least three explosions and the sound of aircraft reverberated in Kabul early Friday, hours after Afghanistan launched a cross-border attack on Pakistan in the latest escalation of violence between the volatile neighbors.
There was no immediate information on the exact location of the explosions in the Afghan capital, or of any potential casualties.
Afghanistan said its military launched its attack across the border into Pakistan late Thursday to retaliate for Pakistani airstrikes on Afghan border areas Sunday, and claimed to have captured more than a dozen Pakistani army posts.
Pakistan’s government, which had described last Sunday’s airstrikes as an attack on militants harbored in the area, confirmed clashes were taking place Thursday along the border but dismissed claims that army posts had been captured. It called Afghanistan’s attack unprovoked.
“In response to the repeated rebellions and insurrections of the Pakistani military, large-scale offensive operations were launched against Pakistani military bases and military installations along the Durand Line,” Afghan government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a post on X Thursday night. Afghanistan’s Defense Ministry said the retaliatory attacks were occurring along the border in five provinces.
The two countries’ 2,611-kilometer long border is known as the Durand Line, which Afghanistan has not formally recognized.
The two sides reported widely differing casualty figures.
Afghanistan’s deputy government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat posted on X that “up to 55” Pakistani soldiers had been killed, with the bodies of 23 taken into Afghanistan, while an undisclosed number of soldiers had been captured.
Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar disputed the claim, saying two Pakistani soldiers had been killed and three others wounded. He said 36 Afghan fighters had been reported killed. In a post on X, he said Pakistan was giving a “strong and effective response” to what he called unprovoked firing from Afghanistan, and would continue to do so.
Mosharraf Ali Zaidi, spokesman for Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, denied that any Pakistani soldiers had been captured.
Fighting also broke out in a separate part of the border, with both sides reporting exchanges of fire in the Torkham border area.
Afghan authorities were evacuating a refugee camp near the Torkham border crossing after several refugees were wounded, said Qureshi Badlon, head of Torkham’s Information and Public Awareness Board. On the Pakistani side of the border, local police said residents were also evacuating to safer areas, while some Afghan refugees who had been waiting to cross back into Afghanistan were also moved to secure locations. Pakistan launched a sweeping crackdown on migrants in Oct. 2023 and has expelled hundreds of thousands of people.
Pakistani police said mortars fired from Afghanistan had landed in nearby villages, but there were no reports of civilian casualties.
“Pakistan will take all necessary measures to ensure its territorial integrity and the safety and security of its citizens,” Pakistan’s Information Ministry said in a post on X.
Afghanistan’s military released video footage of military vehicles moving at night, and the sound of heavy gunfire. The video could not be independently verified.
Tension has been high between the two neighbors for months, with deadly border clashes in October killing dozens of soldiers, civilians and suspected militants. The violence followed explosions in Kabul that Afghan officials blamed on Pakistan. Islamabad, at the time, conducted strikes deep inside Afghanistan to target militant hideouts.
A Qatari-mediated ceasefire between the two countries has largely held, but the two sides have still occasionally traded fire across the border. Several rounds of peace talks in November failed to produce a formal agreement.
On Sunday, Pakistan’s military carried out strikes along the border with Afghanistan, saying it had killed at least 70 militants.
Afghanistan rejected the claim, saying dozens of civilians had been killed, including women and children. The Defense Ministry said “various civilian areas” in eastern Afghanistan had been hit, including a religious madrassa and several homes. The ministry said the strikes were a violation of Afghanistan’s airspace and sovereignty.
Militant violence has surged in Pakistan in recent years, much of which Pakistan blames on the Pakistani Taliban, or TTP, and outlawed Baloch separatist groups. The TTP is separate from but closely allied with Afghanistan’s Taliban. Islamabad accuses the TTP of operating from inside Afghanistan, a charge both the group and Kabul deny.
