Modi favourite to win third term in largest democratic exercise in history held across six weeks

India is to hold a national election in April it has been announced, in what will be the world’s largest election with nearly a billion people eligible to vote.

Many consider Modi’s re-election a foregone conclusion, owing to both the premier’s robust popularity a decade after taking office and a glaringly uneven playing field.

Party of Indian prime minister was by far biggest beneficiary of electoral bonds, which were struck down as unconstitutional

India’s election commission has published details of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of political donations, exposing how much prime minister Narendra Modi’s party benefited from a controversial financing scheme.

According to the data that was released, Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) received more than 60bn rupees (£570m) in donations through a scheme known as electoral bonds, which the Modi government introduced in 2017.

Opposition politicians excluded from rest of winter session for protesting against parliament security breach

More than 140 Indian opposition politicians have been suspended from parliament, the largest number in history, after protesting against a recent security breach at the parliamentary premises.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) government was accused of a direct attack on democracy and creating “anarchy” after 141 MPs from 11 different opposition parties, who sit in the lower and upper houses of parliament, were suspended for the rest of the winter session.