India’s six-week election ends with enduring heatwave
Crowds lined up early outside polling booths to beat the heat in Varanasi, where a week of unbearable temperatures has brought daily life to a standstill
India’s marathon election drew to a close on Saturday six weeks after voting began, with voters enduring a scorching heatwave to cast their ballots in the city of Varanasi.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has long been widely expected to win a third term when results are announced on Tuesday, in large part due to his cultivated image as an aggressive champion of India.
Exit polls — though historically unreliable at capturing voter shifts in an election with 968 million eligible voters — are expected to give some initial indication of whether he has succeeded later.
Many in the 73-year-old premier’s constituency of Varanasi were eager for that to be the case.
India’s gruelling heatwave is set to abate soon but that was no consolation to housewife Bindwasvini Devi, one of the millions braving Saturday’s scorching sun to vote in the final day of national elections.
Crowds lined up early outside polling booths to beat the heat in the city of Varanasi, where a week of unbearable temperatures has brought daily life to a standstill.
With temperatures peaking at 44 degrees Celsius in the afternoon, many were keen to dispense with their democratic duty as soon as possible and return home to bunker down until the heat recedes.
“It made a lot more sense to be out before the sun gets stronger,” Devi, 42, said from outside a booth in her neighbourhood soon after polls opened, admitting even at that early hour that the heat was taking a toll. “The last few days have been very tough and we’ve tried to stay hydrated and avoided going out as much as possible.”
Even in the morning hours, polling officials and voters alike had faces coated in a sheen of sweat.
Many queueing up grumbled among themselves over long wait times outdoors and in corridors without overhead fans or air conditioning.
India has voted in seven phases over six weeks to ease the immense logistical burden of staging an election in the world’s most populous country.
Authorities in the eastern state of Bihar said on Friday that 10 poll workers had died of heatstroke the previous day while setting up for the vote.
A scorching sun bore down on Varanasi and its countless temples and riverside crematoriums during Saturday’s vote, with afternoon temperatures peaking at 45 degrees Celsius.