Your Guide to India’s Upcoming General Election

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is riding a wave of nationalist passion as India’s general election gets under way. Not long ago, economic frustrations had eroded his popularity, including stubborn unemployment, an unpopular national sales tax and his government’s disastrous ban on most bank notes. Even the opposition, largely in disarray since Modi’s resounding victory in 2014, was beginning to unite. Then everything changed with a terrorist strike against Indian troops in February. Modi’s authorization of airstrikes against arch-foe Pakistan allowed his party to tap into public anger and shift the agenda from the economy. Now Modi’s ruling coalition looks likely to retain power, albeit with a lesser majority.

Voting begun April 11 and takes place in seven phases through May 19, with the result announced May 23. The vote is spread over six weeks because of the daunting logistics of polling the world’s largest electorate: roughly 900 million voters stretching from the remote Himalayas in the north to the tropical jungles of the south.