Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state of Gujarat began voting on Thursday with his Hindu nationalist party expected to win a seventh straight term, but any unexpected slip could herald a tighter contest in national polls due by 2024.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has not lost in the western industrial state since 1995 and Modi served as its chief minister for nearly 13 years before becoming prime minister in 2014 after trouncing the Congress party.conducted in the lead-up to the Gujarat polls projected the BJP to comfortably retain power in the state.
Early on Thursday, voters in Surat, the state's second largest city and a diamond cutting and polishing hub, lined up to cast their ballot in the first of the two-phase election. In the last state election five years ago, the BJP won 99 seats in the 182-member assembly while Congress got 77. According to India TV-Matrize opinion poll, also conducted in November, the BJP may win up to 119 seats.
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