Test For Modi As India's Biggest State Votes

MUZAFFARNAGAR, India, , (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 11th Feb, 2017 ) - Voting got underway Saturday in India's most populous state Uttar Pradesh in a contest seen as a key test for Narendra Modi halfway into his first term as prime minister.

Uttar Pradesh is home to over 200 million people -- more than the entire population of Brazil -- and polls there are a bellwether of national politics.

"All voters must take part in this huge festival of democracy and cast their ballots in big numbers," Modi implored on Twitter Saturday.

But this election is also being seen as a referendum on his controversial ban on high-value notes, a move aimed at combating tax evasion by the rich that has hit poor rural communities hard. The northern state voted overwhelmingly for Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2014 general election, powering him to victory over the Congress Party that has dominated Indian politics since independence.