The Key to India’s Biggest Election? Jobs, Jobs, Jobs
Rather than focusing so much on infrastructure spending in the country’s heartland, Prime Minister Narendra Modi should help workers find better opportunities elsewhere.
Modi’s aura of invincibility is at stake in upcoming elections.
Photographer: Narinder Nanu/AFP/Getty Images
Voting has begun in crucial state-level elections in India which will shape Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s choices for the remainder of his second term in office. Of the five states going to the polls, one clearly matters more than the others: Uttar Pradesh.
UP, as it is called, has a population larger than Brazil’s. Many Indians see the sprawling state as the historic and spiritual heartland of the country; an overwhelming majority of the nation’s prime ministers — including Modi himself — have been elected from constituencies in UP. The state sends 80 representatives to India’s 543-member parliament — more than twice as many as any other, barring Maharashtra. How UP residents vote matters more than any other variable in Indian politics.