India election latest: India PM Modi support is SOARING with tough stance against Pakistan
INDIA is expected to hold a General Election next month and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seeking to continue for a second term. Now support for the Prime Minister is on the increase following an air strike on a terrorist training camp in Pakistan.
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Bandu Belkar, a 34-year-old farmer from Maharashtra who voted for the Hindu nationalist BJP in the 2014 general election, said he was unhappy with the government's lax attitudes towards farming and said he had almost made up his mind to vote for the opposition Congress this time.
Mr Belkar said: ”After the air strikes, I have changed my mind. We need a strong leader like Modi to defeat Pakistan.”
Vegetable farmer Ramkisan Dhavale said he will vote for Modi "if he teaches a lesson to Pakistan".
Mr Dhavale, whose cousin serves in the Indian army added: "I can keep personal interests aside and vote for Modi if he does something decisive for our country's security."
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This sentiment was echoed by BS Yeddyurappa, an influential leader of the incumbent BJP.
After the missile strike, Mr Yeddyurappa said: “The whole country has welcomed this…youth are dancing and celebrating.
“It is easy for us to win more than 22 of the states 28 parliament seats here now.”
However, the BJP politician soon rescinded this, saying he had been misunderstood when opposition parties accused him of using the strike to gain political mileage.
His own party was amongst the critics, with General VK Singh, deputy foreign minister tweeting that “action taken by our government is to safeguard our nation and ensure safety of our citizens, not to win a few extra seats.”
However, it seems Mr Yeddyurappa’s original assertion has given a voice to what many analysts and politicians already believe.
As the hostilities with Pakistan worsen, the firm stance India takes against the South Asian country will give a boost to President Modi - as he is cast as a tough on terror leader.
Ashutosh Varshney, director of Brown University’s Centre for Contemporary South Asia told the Financial Times: “No action was a non-option.
“Their whole ideology is about using state power to discipline Muslims and discipline Pakistan.
“The idea is that some communities will never listen to persuasion and will only listen to force.”
Opinion polls conducted before the tensions with Pakistan escalated forecast the BJP would struggle to win a majority because of a slowing economy, low rural incomes and the government's failure to boost job growth.
But an opinion poll conducted by India TV-CNX after the air strikes forecast that the BJP could win 41 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.
That is still well below the 73 seats the BJP won in 2014, but it is 12 seats more than predicted by a poll conducted before the air strikes.