India sets April 19 for national polls

India has announced that national polls would begin on April 19, with Hindu-nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi strongly favoured to win a third term in the world's biggest democracy.

Nearly a billion people are eligible to cast ballots in what will be the largest exercise of the democratic franchise in human history, conducted over six weeks, as announced on Saturday.

Many consider Modi's re-election a foregone conclusion, owing to both the premier's robust popularity a decade after taking office and a glaringly uneven playing field.

His opponents have been hamstrung by infighting and what critics say are politically motivated legal investigations aimed at hobbling any challengers to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Divided opposition

The opposition Congress, which led India's independence struggle and ruled the country almost uninterrupted for decades after its conclusion, is meanwhile a shadow of its former self and out of office in all but three of the country's 28 states.

The bloc has been plagued by disputes over seat-sharing deals, suffered the defection of one of its members to the government and has so far been unable to publicly agree on which of its leaders will be its prime ministerial candidate.

Several party leaders in the alliance are the subject of active investigations or criminal proceedings, and critics have accused Modi's government of using law enforcement agencies to selectively target its political foes.

Democratic backsliding

Gandhi, 53, has criticised the government for democratic backsliding and its chest-thumping Hindu nationalism, which have left many of the country's 210-million-strong Muslim minority fearful for their futures.

He has also called into question Modi's probity by highlighting his close ties to tycoon industrialist Gautam Adani, whose business empire saw a market meltdown last year after a US short-seller investment firm accused it of corporate fraud.

But Gandhi has already led Congress to two successive humiliating defeats against Modi and there is no sign his efforts to dent the premier's popularity have registered with the public.

Published opinion polls are rare in India but a Pew survey last year found Modi was viewed favourably by nearly 80 percent of Indians.

A February poll of urban voters conducted by YouGov showed the BJP comfortably leading India's manifold opposition parties among 47 percent of those surveyed, while Congress was a dismal second at 11 percent.

A total of 970 million people are eligible to vote in the election — more than the entire population of the United States, European Union and Russia combined.

Voting will be staggered over seven stages between April 19 and June 1, with more than a million polling stations in operation.