Left-Wing Violence May Help Modi Win Again in Coal Hub: India Votes

Chiranjivi Chakraborty
·2 min read
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(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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Hello, this is Chiranjivi Chakraborty, Asia Equities Reporter in Mumbai. My birthplace is Ambikapur in Sarguja district of the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh. About 1,100 km south-east of India’s capital New Delhi, Sarguja’s hills — some of the oldest terrain in the Asian continent — are home to several tribes, dense forests and rich reserves of bauxite and coal. Witness to left-wing violence that still afflicts parts of the state, the region suffers poor health and education services as well as inadequate infrastructure. The constituency has voted for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party since 2004. Still, the opposition is putting up a strong fight and has fielded a popular young candidate.

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Campaign Trail

Indian police arrested Arun Reddy, the social media chief of the country’s main opposition Congress party, over accusations he doctored a widely shared video of India’s powerful interior minister Amit Shah during an ongoing national election.

The Congress has filed a complaint with the Election Commission against Modi’s party for alleged “flagrant and brazen violations” of the law and the model code of conduct, Spokesman Jairam Ramesh said in a post on X, citing inappropriate advertisements published by the BJP.

Global Media

Al Jazeera reported that a growing number of Indians are bearing the brunt of the increasing informalization of work in India. A study released in March by the International Labour Organization and the Institute for Human Development, said that India’s workforce is getting more informalized and that the quality of employment has suffered especially in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.

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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This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.

--With assistance from Supriya Batra.

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