West Bengal, Tamil Nadu election: High-stakes contest in India amid SIR row

Millions of Indians have begun voting in high-stakes state elections in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu. In West Bengal, where the fiercest contest is unfolding, voting is under way in 152 of 294 seats across 16 districts in the first phase, with 1,478 candidates in the fray. A second phase of polling is scheduled for next week. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has mounted an aggressive push to unseat Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, whose Trinamool Congress is seeking a fourth straight term in a state the BJP has never governed. The election is taking place against a controversy over a sweeping revision of electoral rolls that has heightened political tensions. In Tamil Nadu, elections are being held in a single phase across all 234 constituencies, with more than 57 million voters eligible to vote. These elections are part of a wider round of state elections seen as an early gauge of support for Modi's party, with polling already held this month in the states of Kerala and Assam and the federally-administered territory of Puducherry. For the BJP, the contests are a test of its ability to expand in regions where it has struggled, while opposition parties are ga