India's election set to be tight race as Narendra Modi loses support | IOL News

New Delhi - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is rallying his nationalist base ahead of the world's biggest election, which starts on Thursday, but has become tighter than anticipated just months ago, because of falling incomes for farmers and a lack of jobs.

In December, alarm bells clanged within Modi's Hindu nationalist fold after he lost three big battleground states in a final test of popularity to the main opposition Congress and its allies, led by Rahul Gandhi. Modi ordered air strikes on a suspected camp of militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad in Pakistan after it claimed responsibility for a deadly car bombing in Indian Kashmir, in the first such raid since the neighbours' last war in 1971.

"Is their hatred for Modi so great they can't even unite when it comes to national security?" he said to tens of thousands of cheering supporters wearing saffron headbands. "Congress is trying to pitch in the election with regard to farm distress, rural crisis, unemployment."

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