![\"PM](\"https:\/\/c.ndtvimg.com\/2024-05\/9ni5f07g_rahul-gandhi-sonia-gandhi_625x300_25_May_24.jpeg\"\/ "\\"PM")
<\/div>\nSonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi after voting in the Lok Sabha elections 2024<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
New Delhi: <\/b><\/p>\n
Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi voted today as the country’s six-week election resumed, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rivals accusing his government of unjustly targeting them in criminal probes.<\/p>\n
PM Modi, 73, remains roundly popular after a decade in office and his ruling BJP is widely expected to win a third term next month after a poll hit by recurrent early summer heatwaves.<\/p>\n
His prospects have been further bolstered by several criminal investigations into his opponents, sparking concerns from UN rights chief Volker Turk.<\/p>\n
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi cast his ballot at a polling station in Delhi, where temperatures were forecast to reach 43 degree Celsius.<\/p>\n
A son, grandson, and great-grandson of former prime ministers, Rahul Gandhi paused after voting to take a selfie with his mother Sonia Gandhi, but did not speak to crowds of reporters.<\/p>\n
The scion of a dynasty that dominated Indian politics for decades, he was convicted of criminal libel last year after a complaint by BJP leader.<\/p>\n
His two-year prison sentence saw him disqualified from parliament until the verdict was suspended by the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, 55, and chief of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), who was detained in March in a long-running graft case, also voted today.<\/p>\n
The Supreme Court bailed Mr Kejriwal earlier this month, and he returned to the campaign trail. “Modi has started a very dangerous mission,” he said soon after his release. “Modi will send all opposition leaders to jail,” he said.<\/p>\n
The Congress is spearheading an Opposition alliance of more than two dozen parties competing jointly against PM Modi, including the AAP.<\/p>\n
Mr Kejriwal’s organisation grew out of an anti-corruption movement a decade ago, and has been elected to office in Delhi and Punjab, but has struggled to establish itself as a nationwide force.<\/p>\n
In February, the authorities froze several Congress bank accounts as part of a running dispute over income tax returns filed five years ago, a move the Gandhis said had severely impacted the party’s ability to contest the election.<\/p>\n
“We have no money to campaign, we cannot support our candidates,” Rahul Gandhi told reporters in March.<\/p>\n
Heatwave ‘Red Alert’<\/strong><\/p>\n India is voting in seven phases over six weeks to ease the immense logistical burden of staging an election in the world’s most populous country.<\/p>\n Turnout is down several percentage points from the last national poll in 2019, with analysts blaming widespread expectations of a PM Modi victory as well as hotter-than-average temperatures heading into the summer.<\/p>\n India’s weather bureau this week issued a heatwave “red alert” for Delhi and surrounding states where tens of millions of people were casting their ballots on Saturday.<\/p>\n The India Meteorological Department (IMD) warned of heightened health risks for infants, the elderly and those with chronic diseases.<\/p>\n Extensive scientific research shows climate change is causing heatwaves to become longer, more frequent and more intense, with Asia warming faster than the global average.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n