World's largest elections get underway in India

Polls have opened in six of India's constituencies, launching the first day of voting in the country's six-week general election.

Monday's vote will take place in the of Assam and Tripura in the northeast, before moving to other areas of the country in eight phases.

India's ruling Congress party, which has held power for a decade, is expected to be defeated by the opposition Hindu nationalists after the country's 814-million-strong electorate finishes voting on May 12.

Opponents of Congress are angry about low growth, rampant corruption and religious unrest under the current government.

In Assam, a Congress party stronghold, some voters told the AFP news agency that they had been swayed by opposition leader Narendra Modi's promises of better infrastructure, strong leadership, jobs and a clean administration.

"My wife is a graduate, she is sitting at home without a job," Nirmal Pal, a 42-year-old car repair shop worker, told the AFP news agency in Dibrugarh. "The Congress has given us no benefit."

Modi is expected to score strongly among young voters, thanks to his message of aspiration and skills over the left-leaning Congress's pitch of welfare and equitable development.

Voters "certainly think things will improve under Modi", Sanjay Kumar, the director of the Centre for the Study of
Developing Societies, a Delhi-based think tank, told AFP.

Growth under the Congress party's decade-long rule has averaged 7.6 percent per year, but a sharp slowdown since 2012 has crippled public finances and caused an investment crash.

Many Indians also believe that the second term of the prime minister, Manmohan Singh, second was largely lost to indecision and scandal.

The election will be the biggest in history, as voters travel to nearly a million polling stations. Results will be released on May 16.