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India’s City of Joy Appears Reluctant to Cheer for Modi in Elections

Sudhi Ranjan Sen

May 30, 2024 at 7:12 a.m.·2 min read

(Bloomberg) -- Each day, Bloomberg journalists take you across a selection of towns and cities as they gear up for the big vote.

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Hi, this is Sudhi Ranjan Sen. I write on defense and foreign policy. My hometown of Kolkata has two of the most bitterly contested parliamentary constituencies in the ongoing national election. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party is desperate for its first win from the city, which had elected its parent Bharatiya Jana Sangh’s founder Syama Prasad Mukherjee in India’s inaugural national election. Modi’s party is pushing hard to expand its tally from the state in a bid to strengthen its majority in parliament. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s party, Trinamool Congress, won from both these seats in the three previous elections. A fierce Modi critic, she remains well entrenched and popular here, even as the Communist party is making a strong comeback. Kolkata hosts India’s biggest cigarette-maker ITC and the world’s top coal miner Coal India, even as most big names have abandoned this former national capital, nicknamed the City of Joy. The metropolis runs the country’s only operational tram service.

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India’s former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh criticized Modi’s comments on the election campaign trail as divisive and urged voters to cast their ballots against his “despotic regime.”

Read more:

Female Turnout Exceeds Men in Some Indian States, Says Poll Body
India Wins S&P Rating Outlook Boost Days Before Voting Ends

Campaign Trail

Campaigning for the seventh and final phase of India’s national election will end Thursday evening. Voting will be held on Saturday for 57 parliamentary constituencies.

Global Media

The New York Times reported about how Indian political parties are courting the country’s 35 million-member diaspora, despite their relatively small numbers.

The AFP wrote that India’s farmers are furious over politicians using policies such as export bans and duty-free imports to suppress prices of produce including onions, sugar and lentils.

Who Votes This Week?

India’s mammoth election runs through June 1, with counting scheduled for June 4. This map from the Election Commission of India shows which constituencies vote when.

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Indians are voting in the world’s biggest election. Understand how money and business intersect with politics and power by following Bloomberg India’s channel on WhatsApp, and sign up for the weekly India Edition newsletter by Menaka Doshi.

This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.

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