MUMBAI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat will go to the polls next month, the election commission said on Thursday, a vote that is likely to offer a clue to his party’s prospects in a general election due by 2024.
Modi remains popular despite criticism of inflation and unemployment, and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) expects to emerge victorious in state assembly elections in Gujarat in the west, and in Himachal Pradesh in the north.
The Hindu-nationalist BJP has been in power in Gujarat since 1998 and Modi served as its chief minister for nearly 13 years before becoming prime minister when a BJP-led coalition won power in 2014.
The Gujarat assembly polls will be in two phases, on Dec. 1 and Dec. 5, the Election Commission of India said. Votes will be counted on Dec. 8 along with those from Himachal Pradesh, where polls will be held on Nov. 12.
Voters will go to the polls in Gujarat a month after the collapse of a suspension footbridge in the town of Morbi that killed 135 people.
Sunday’s disaster has angered many but looks unlikely to erode the BJP’s popularity in the state, analysts say.
Home affairs minister Amit Shah last month predicted that his BJP party would retain power in the 182-member Gujarat assembly with a two-thirds majority. In the last state election five years ago, the BJP won 99 seats while the main opposition Congress ended up with 77.
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