Elections
Modi Faces New Test in Kashmir After Bruising Election Fight
- Voters in Jammu and Kashmir go to polls from this week
- Modi’s party lost its majority in recent national vote
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Three months after his worst election performance to date, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is facing another challenging vote: this time in the fragile region of Jammu and Kashmir, where separatist sentiment is strong and voters are angry with their loss of autonomy.
Jammu and Kashmir will hold local elections in three phases starting Wednesday — the first such polls since Modi’s government stripped the region of its special status and brought it under federal control in 2019. Almost 9 million registered voters will choose candidates for 90 seats in the local assembly. The approximate voter turnout for the region stood at 58.85%, according to the latest available data across 24 constituencies that voted Wednesday.