Top Asian News 1:33 a.m. GMT
Voting begins in the last round of India's election, a referendum on Modi's decade in power
NEW DELHI (AP) — Indians began voting Saturday in the last round of a six week-long national election that is a referendum on the country’s Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decade in power. The election is considered one of the most consequential in India’s history. If Modi wins, he’ll be only the second Indian leader to retain power for a third term after Jawaharlal Nehru, the country’s first prime minister. The seventh round of voting in 57 constituencies across seven states and one union territory will complete polling for all 543 seats in the powerful lower house of parliament. Nearly 970 million voters — more than 10% of the world’s population — were eligible to elect a new parliament for five years.