In all, 188 million Indians are eligible to vote in 117 constituencies during the day, across 15 states and federally controlled territories. India’s parliament has 545 members.
Nearly 24 percent of those eligible had voted as of 12 pm, India’s election commission said.
In Gujarat, Modi first met his mother early in the morning and then rode in an open jeep, surrounded by hundreds of onlookers, to cast his vote shortly after 8 am.
“IED is a weapon of terrorism, and voter ID is a weapon of democracy,” he told reporters after voting, referring to improvised explosive devices and voter identification cards.
“I believe the voter ID is much more powerful than an IED.”
The general election, which has seven phases, began on April 11 and will end on May 19. Votes will be counted on May 23.
“This is, sort of, an inflection point,” said Rahul Verma, a fellow at the Centre for Policy Research, a New Delhi-based think tank. More than half of India’s parliamentary constituencies will have voted by the end of the third phase.
So far, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has aggressively pushed Modi’s national security record as it seeks to offset the opposition’s charges of economic mishandling, inadequate jobs creation and widespread farm distress.
“I think job creation, sustainable development, and communal harmony should be the top priorities for the upcoming government,” said Ubaidullah Mohyideen, 26, who voted on Tuesday in Kerala’s Wayanad, one of the two seats that opposition Congress party chief Rahul Gandhi is contesting.
Modi addressed an election rally in western Maharashtra state on Monday and mentioned the attacks on Sri Lankan hotels and churches on Easter Sunday that killed at least 321 people and wounded about 500. He said India’s security had been enhanced after his government came to power in 2014.
“Friends, remember what India’s situation was before 2014,” Modi said. “Weren’t there bombs going off in different corners of the country every other day?”
