KOLKATA (AFP) -
Millions
of voters head to the polls Monday in two Indian states, with Prime
Minister Narendra Modi's party facing a tough fight as it tries to
tighten its grip on power nationally.
Modi's Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP) must win state elections to gain more seats in the nation's
upper house of parliament, which has been blocking reforms seen as
crucial to fuelling economic growth.
Most members of the upper
house, which has obstructed measures such as a planned standardised
goods and services tax, are indirectly elected by state legislatures.
The
Hindu nationalist BJP is seen as having little chance in the large
rural state of West Bengal in eastern India against a feisty chief
minister popular with millions of impoverished voters.
It has a
stronger chance of seizing power for the first time in the tea-growing
state of Assam in the northeast, where it has promised to crack down on
illegal immigration from neighbouring Bangladesh.
Modi's party
swept to power in a general election two years ago promising
business-friendly reforms to overhaul the economy, but lost out in two
critical state polls in 2015.
Analyst Neelanjan Sircar said the ruling party desperately needed a win in state polls this year.
"The
BJP is clearly not doing well in the state elections and if they do not
win one in 2016, they would have gone without having won a single state
election for nearly two years, which is not good for any party," said
Sircar, a senior fellow at the New Delhi-based Centre for Policy
Research.
"The only state in which the BJP may do well is Assam,
and it is important for them to win this so that their base feels
energised and the morale of the party workers is boosted."
- Flyover disaster -
Polls
opened at 7 am (0130 GMT) on Monday, with some 3.8 million voters
eligible to cast their ballots in West Bengal and another 9.4 million in
Assam.
Elections in both states are being held in phases, with around 85 million people eligible to vote in total.
Security
was tight in West Bengal, with several of the contested seats located
in impoverished regions where Maoist rebels have long been battling
government rule.
Armed police have been deployed, along with
helicopters, to try to ensure polling runs smoothly, election commission
officials have said.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, a
61-year-old former national railways minister known affectionately as
"didi", or elder sister, is expected to remain in power.
But a row
over the collapse last week of a flyover under construction in the
state capital Kolkata, which claimed 26 lives, could cost her Trinamool
Congress party some votes.
Banerjee's political rivals have
accused the government of failing to tackle problems with the project
that began in 2009 and was only supposed to take 18 months.
Biswanath
Chakraborty, a Kolkata-based political scientist, said the disaster had
"tainted the party for the first time since it came to power five years
ago".
In Assam, known for its tea plantations and a myriad of
rebel insurgencies, the BJP has teamed up with local parties that
support indigenous rights and has pledged a crackdown on illegal
immigration from Bangladesh.
Migrants have long been accused of
illegally entering the state from Bangladesh and grabbing land, causing
tensions with local people and sporadic outbreaks of communal violence.
Analysts
say the popularity of the traditionally dominant Congress party is
waning in Assam, offering the BJP its one chance of state election
success.
The southern states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Pondicherry
will hold elections later this month and next, but the BJP is not
expected to win in any of these.
Counting and the release of results for all five states will take place on May 19.
by Sailendra Sil
© 2016 AFP
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