Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set an ambitious target to secure a 400-seat supermajority, with 370 directly controlled by his right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)

An emphatic win for the BJP would give the party a mandate to further enshrine its Hindu-nationalist agenda, pulling away from India’s secular foundation toward majoritarian rule. 

The BJP’s campaign manifesto centers on job creation and anti-poverty and development programs, with a particular focus on women, the poor, young people and farmers. 

Modi wants to turn India into a global manufacturing hub, continue its massive infrastructure transformation, and achieve energy independence by 2047. “Everything has become so expensive; how can poor people survive in this climate? I think it’s time for a change,” Irafan Mohammad, a Muzaffarnagar rickshaw driver, who has four children and earns $6 a day, told CNN.

 Modi wants India to become a permanent member of the UN Security Council, will push to bid for the 2036 Summer Olympics and aims to land an astronaut on the moon, and has pledged to transform the country into a developed nation by 2047.