India Election Live Updates and Results: Modi Is Poised to Win 3rd ...

The election, a high-turnout affair in which more than 640 million Indians voted, is a mammoth undertaking described as the biggest peacetime logistical exercise anywhere.

It coincided with an intense heat wave that gripped much of north India, leaving at least 30 election workers dead, according to news reports. The country’s election commission said it was still counting deaths across the country, mostly because of heatstroke.

Here’s what else to know about the election that will determine the political direction of the world’s most populous nation for the next five years.

Why does this election matter?

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose power is well entrenched, is seeking a third term. In his decade at the helm, he has projected himself as a champion of India’s development, trying to address some of the basic failures, like antiquated infrastructure and a lack of toilets and clean water, that have held the country back from reaching its potential as a major power. But his push to reshape India’s secular democracy as a Hindu-first nation has aggravated the religious and ethnic fault lines in this huge, diverse country.

In a region of frequent political turmoil, India is deeply proud of the nearly undisrupted electoral democracy it has maintained since its founding as a republic more than 75 years ago. While independent institutions have come under assault from Mr. Modi’s efforts to centralize power and the ruling party is seen as having an unfair advantage over political fund-raising, voting in India is still seen as free and fair, and candidates generally accept the results.

The conduct of India’s election commission, and its partiality to the ruling party, has faced criticism from opposition parties and activists. Some opposition groups have also raised concerns that electronic voting machines could be vulnerable to tampering.

How does India vote?

India has a parliamentary system of governance. The party or coalition holding a majority of the 543 seats in the lower house of the Parliament gets to form the government and appoint as prime minister one of its winning candidates.

The country has more than 960 million eligible voters, about 470 million of them women. Turnout, based on preliminary numbers, appeared be on par with past trends of around 65 percent. The previous parliamentary election, in 2019, had turnout of 67 percent, the highest ever.

The votes are cast electronically across more than a million polling stations that require about 15 million employees during balloting. To reach every possible voter in Himalayan hamlets and on isolated islands, election officials travel by any means possible, in railroads and helicopters, on horseback and boats.

India’s elections are the most expensive in the world, with political parties having spent more than $7 billion in the 2019 parliamentary election, according to studies. That spending is expected to double in the current election. In a sign of how much of a factor money is, the Indian authorities seized the equivalent of over a billion dollars in cash, gold, liquor and drugs during the couple of months of campaigning, which that they said was meant for bribing voters.

Who is running, and who is likely to win?

Mr. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party holds a strong majority in the 543-seat Parliament. The B.J.P. won 303 seats in 2019, and with its coalition partners, it enjoyed a majority of 352 seats.

Although Indian elections are known to throw surprises, Mr. Modi’s B.J.P. is well placed to return to power. His party, relentless in trying to expand its base, is rich in cash and has strong election machinery. Mr. Modi has used this to build a multipronged approach that offers something for nearly everyone: There is the wider emotional appeal of his Hindu majoritarian ideology for his main base, coupled with a broad range of welfare and infrastructure programs to win new constituencies for the B.J.P.

The opposition has struggled to match Mr. Modi’s appeal.

The Indian National Congress, the main opposition party, ruled India for decades, but it has been become shadow of its former glory in two consecutive national elections. In 2019, it won only 52 seats.

Before this election, the opposition tried to unite as one bloc. Mr. Modi has jailed many opponents and bogged down others in investigations, and the parties came together over fears that he would marginalize them further. But they still face an uphill challenge to unseat him.

What are the main issues?

Mr. Modi began the long election campaign hoping to win another term by highlighting India’s global rise under his watch and by promoting his government’s growing welfare programs. But his tone and message quickly shifted, with his party once again turning to what has fetched it votes in the past — stoking Hindu-Muslim divisions and trying to unite its base by raising fear of the country’s Muslims.

Analysts attribute Mr. Modi’s dramatic shift to a change in the opposition. Those groups have long struggled to pitch a cohesive ideological alternative beyond a criticism of Mr. Modi’s divisive politics and his increased authoritarianism, but they have found a narrative that appears to be making Mr. Modi nervous.

During the election campaign, the opposition coalition has pursued an agenda of social and economic justice, pushing for a fairer distribution of India’s top-heavy wealth that would be based on a caste census that determines the share of different communities in government resources. They have tried to paint Mr. Modi’s party as elitist, in terms of both its support of the billionaires at the top and its approach to the middle and bottom communities in India’s rigid caste system.

When will we find out the results?

Because of India’s vast geography, voting for the parliamentary election is taking place over seven phases, from the first region casting its votes to the last. Scheduling is tricky, as it must factor in climate extremes and the frequent cultural and religious festivals across India.

After voting completed on June 1, results will be tallied on June 4 and announced by the end of the day.

Where can I find more information?

As Voting Ends in India, Modi Awaits a Verdict on His 10 Years in Power

Is Modi Worried? India’s Long-Deflated Opposition Finds Some Momentum.

Modi’s Power Keeps Growing, and India Looks Sure to Give Him More

Modi’s Party Doesn’t Control All of India. But He’s Working on It.

What 10 Years of Modi Rule Has Meant for India’s Economy

Why Is Narendra Modi So Popular? Tune In to Find Out.

Hari Kumar contributed reporting.