India goes to vote: First phase of mammoth general election 2019 begins

There are 543 seats at stake

Indians began voting on Thursday in the first phase of a mammoth general election, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi gunning for a second term having campaigned strongly on his national security record following a flare up in tensions with Pakistan.

Security for the polls was increased after seven people were killed in militant attacks in Jammu and Kashmir, the country’s only Muslim majority state, and in eastern India, where Maoist insurgents were blamed for a bomb that killed a state legislator from Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Voting in the first of seven rounds is being held in 91 parliament