India’s Modi readies bellwether poll

NEW DELHI

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INDIAS poorest state Bihar goes to the polls today, and for many of its 130 million people, one issue overshadows all others: money.

That's what Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) hopes to capitalise on, wooing voters with economic incentives in a bid to win full control.

A win here, strategists say, could “energise” the BJP’s prospects in other key states heading into next year’s elections.

Hindu-majority Bihar, the country’s third most populous state - roughly equal to Mexico - is a bellwether battleground.

It remains the only state in the Hindi-speaking north where Modi’s Hindu nationalist party has never ruled alone.

For housewife Rajkumari Devi, feeding her three children depends on the daily wage her husband earns as a labourer in the Muzaffarpur district.