During and after the unprecedented rains and flooding on April 16, many went above and beyond to help the country recover
The voters didn't buy it. Election results showed that people voted according to their caste, an ancient hierarchy in India that is outlawed by the constitution but still vital in Indian politics.
Voting will take place in seven phases over six weeks beginning Thursday. Nearly 900 million people, including 15.9 million first-time voters, are eligible to cast ballots in the world's largest democratic exercise. Around a million polling stations will be set up, and voters will choose 543 members of the Lower House of Parliament.
According to the Centre for Monitoring the Indian Economy, employment contracted in the year following demonetization by 3.5 million jobs. The think tank said unemployment reached 7.4 per cent in December 2018, its highest rate in more than two years.
Public subsidies to farmers have failed to steady India's agricultural sector.
The first item in the opposition Congress party's election manifesto describes a plan for creating jobs. It also promises an income subsidy program for the poorest families and for farmers.
Kashmir
Amid growing scrutiny of Modi's economic record, a suicide attack in Kashmir killed 40 Indian paramilitary soldiers in February, helping the BJP hone its nationalist pitch.
Analysts say Indian airstrikes inside Pakistan in response to the attack gave Modi a pre-election boost. BJP leaders quickly made national security a central plank of their campaign.
In northern parts of the country bordering Pakistan, anti-Pakistan sentiment has always been strong because of the bloodshed during the countries' partition in 1947 and three wars since then.
Caste
Currently, just under half of all government jobs and places in state-funded schools are allocated to the lower castes.
With an eye toward elections, Modi's government last year passed a law carving out 10 per cent quotas for lower-income Indians belonging to higher castes.
Political puzzle
That's easier said than done. Despite Congress victories in three key state elections in December, bucking a string of losses to the BJP since 2014, Gandhi has struggled to marshal widespread support for his beleaguered party, even after bringing his popular sister, Priyanka Gandhi, into the fold.
The Gandhis would have to unite the opposition in order to take on BJP candidates in the vote-rich states of Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Delhi. A split in opposition votes would likely benefit the BJP.
Giveaways
Some 270 million people - roughly 22 per cent of the country's population - live in poverty, making giveaways particularly attractive to voters.
In the past, farmworkers were offered cows and goats.
In its interim budget in January, the Modi-led government announced that farmers would be paid 6,000 rupees ($85) annually, benefiting as many as 120 million households.
The Congress party waived farmers' bank loans in the three states it won in December. It promised in its election manifesto to waive outstanding farmer loans elsewhere, and to decriminalize farmer loan defaults.
Since only about a fifth of India's population could read or write at the time of the country's first election in 1951, the symbols were introduced on ballot papers to help the unlettered cast their votes.
Nearly three-quarters of Indians can now read, but the icons remain evocative political symbols.
Among the best-known symbols are the lotus flower for the governing BJP, and the outstretched palm-facing hand for Congress.
The Aam Aadmi Party, or the Common Man's Party, which rules the state of Delhi, chose a broom as its election symbol, reflecting its pledge to sweep the political system clean of corruption.
During and after the unprecedented rains and flooding on April 16, many went above and beyond to help the country recover
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