Supporters of the ruling Bharatiya Janta Party holding cut-outs of India's prime minister Narendra Modi ahead of the seventh and final phase of voting in India's general election.Supporters of the ruling Bharatiya Janta Party holding cut-outs of India's prime minister Narendra Modi ahead of the seventh and final phase of voting in India's general election.in India’s history with almost a billion eligible voters, began in mid-April.
On Sunday, Arwind Kejriwal, one of the most prominent opposition leaders and the chief minister of Delhi, was returned to jail after briefly being released on a temporary bail in order to campaign in the elections. Kejriwal has alleged the corruption case against him is “politically motivated” by the Modi government in order to undermine his party, a charge the BJP denies.
“On one very basic level, the election didn’t matter,” said Neelanjan Sircar, a senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research in Delhi. “The dominant view was always that Modi and the BJP are coming back, irrespective of the numbers. The bigger question mark is: what genuine democratic legitimacy will be derived from this election?”
Rathee has been releasing political commentary videos since 2017 but over the course of the election he rose to become a household name as one of the few who dared to voice dissent.