World’s biggest election starts
Indians start voting in the world’s biggest ever election today, with a Hindu nationalist opposition party that has promised economic rejuvenation and jobs tipped to emerge as the clear leader but likely to fall short of an absolute majority. The elections to choose members to the 543-seat Lok Sabha, or House of the People, will be spread over five weeks, kicking off in two small northeastern states, then spreading to the northern Himalayan plateaus, western deserts and tropical south before ending in the densely-populated northern plains.