Five month after deadly attacks:

Mumbai votes as elections pass half-way stage

Ten seats in India’s lower house of parliament are up for grabs in India’s financial and entertainment capital, which has seen an increase in “white collar” political activism since the November strikes that killed 166.

Anger at India’s leaders for failing to prevent the carnage has led independent candidates to stand and stirred the traditionally apathetic educated, urban middle class to take part in the political process.

Yet despite the awakening, national security is not considered a priority issue across the country as a whole, with the vast majority of voters more concerned with local issues that impact their daily lives. In Mumbai and Maharashtra state, that has meant support for right-wing Hindu parties like Shiv Sena and its offshoot the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, which both push a strong line on protecting local Marathi culture and language.

Among the 11 states voting on Thursday are parts of impoverished Bihar and populous Uttar Pradesh in the north, Gujarat in the west, the southern rural state of Karnataka, and leftist-dominated eastern West Bengal.

Smaller, regional parties are expected to play a key role in the election, after securing nearly 50 percent of the vote in 2004 and forcing the ruling Congress party into a coalition with an alphabet soup of local parties.

With 714 million eligible voters, India’s general election is the world’s biggest democratic exercise.

MUMBAI, Wednesday, AFP