India began voting on Friday in a six-week election. A total of 968mn people are eligible to take part in the world’s biggest vote - a staggering logistical exercise that critics say follows a concerted effort to delegitimise rivals.A long and winding queue was patiently assembled outside a polling station in the Haridwar, on the banks of the Ganges river, even before the booths opened.“Prime Minister Narendra Modi had ensured our country as well as our faith is secure,” 59-year-old Hindu ascetic Uday Bharti said outside a polling station. “We have come here to make sure Modi keeps doing his good work.”Modi, 73, remains resoundingly popular after a decade in office that has seen India rise in diplomatic clout and economic power.“I urge all those voting...to exercise their franchise in record numbers,” he wrote in a post on X as the election began. “Every vote counts and every voice matters!” Modi has already led the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) through two landslide victories in 2014 and 2019.Analysts have long expected Modi to triumph against a fractious alliance of more than two dozen parties that have yet to name a candidate for prime minister. His prospects have been further bolstered by several criminal probes into his opponents and a tax investigation this year that froze the bank accounts of Congress, India’s largest opposition party. “We have no money to campaign, we cannot support our candidates,” Rahul Gandhi, the most prominent Congress leader, told reporters in March. “Our ability to fight elections has been damaged.”Opposition figures and human rights organisations have accused Modi’s government of orchestrating the probes to weaken rivals.Modi’s tenure has seen India overtake former colonial ruler Britain as the world’s fifth-biggest economy, and Western nations lining up to court a prospective ally against regional rival China’s growing assertiveness. In doing so, they have sidestepped concerns over the taming of India’s once-vibrant press and restrictions on civil society that have seen rights groups such as Amnesty severely curtail their local operations.