Regional party claims it will beat BJP in India’s biggest state election

VARANASI, (India): A regional Indian party has claimed it will unseat Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in provincial elections in Uttar Pradesh state, the most crucial test for Modi before a general election in two years.

The Hindu nationalist BJP has maintained it will retain power in the bellwether state, which with more than 200 million people is India’s most populous.

“We are going to form the government and our party is going to win a large number of seats,” Akhilesh Yadav, the head of the secular Samajwadi or Socialist Party, told Reuters on the sidelines of a rally in Varanasi district, which is Modi’s parliamentary constituency.

“We have the people’s full support, which is very much visible,” he said, as a crowd of about 10,000 people, many wearing the party’s trademark red cap, chanted “Akhilesh, Akhilesh”.

Opinion polls conducted before voting began in the seven-stage election last month had mostly predicted the BJP will return to power in Uttar Pradesh. However, such polls are not always accurate in India and exit polls can only be published after voting is concluded on Monday.

Counting in the Uttar Pradesh and four other state elections will begin on Thursday.