AP PHOTOS: What's on the voters’ minds as India heads into a 6-week national election

Raj Sud, 94, has voted in almost every election held in independent India, bearing witness to the eventful journey of a diverse, and now the world’s most populous, democracy over the last 76 years. Nearly 970 million people are eligible to vote in India’s 6-week national election starting Friday, and the elderly homemaker has a clear favorite in the race. Most polls have predicted a victory for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party for a third straight five-year term. “I like Modi very much. Modi is working honestly. And he is doing very good work and wants to make the whole country absolutely beautiful,” said Sud. Modi is considered a champion of the country’s Hindu majority and has overseen rapid economic growth during his last two terms. But critics say he's also undermined India’s democracy and its status as a secular nation with attacks by Hindu nationalists against the country’s minorities and a shrinking space for dissent and free...