India set to veer right as world's biggest polls begin

Indian voters, worried about jobs and angry about corruption, look set to turf out the ruling Congress party in the world's biggest election starting Monday in favour of the opposition Hindu nationalists under hardliner Narendra Modi. After 10 years of leftist rule by Congress and the Gandhi family dynasty, surveys show the young and increasingly aspirational electorate yearning for change, frustrated about the country's direction and irked by higher food prices. Modi, a hawkish three-times chief minister from western Gujarat state, is the son of a tea seller who has risen through the ranks of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to become the leading prime ministerial candidate. Though tainted by religious riots and often viewed with hostility by Muslims, the right-winger has marketed himself as an economic reformer intent on rebooting the economy and creating jobs.

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