In the lead-up to India’s general election, Narendra Modi was expected to frame it as a referendum on his decade as prime minister.

He was expected to boast about achievements like generous welfare programmes and spaceflights. He was to reaffirm that the new Ram temple in Ayodhya represented a cultural assertion for India’s majority Hindus. Even foreign policy was anticipated to influence the ballot, with the publicity boost afforded by Mr Modi’s hosting of the G20 summit last September. Opinion polls have predicted a third, record-equalling landslide win for his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

But early in the gruelling six-week election, Mr Modi’s campaign shifted gears, using divisive rhetoric that has raised questions about his tactics. He’s been accusing the opposition, led by the Congress party, of appeasing the Muslim minority community.

Muslims make up 14% of India’s more than 1.4 billion people. Taking a cue from Mr Modi’s campaign, social media posts by the BJP have, according to the opposition, “demonised” Muslims.

He told a rally on 21 April that the opposition Congress wanted to distribute wealth to “infiltrators” and to “those who have many children”. His remarks were widely seen as referring to Muslims.

At another rally, he warned women that the opposition would confiscate their gold and redistribute it to Muslims. He accused the Congress of orchestrating a “vote jihad”, urging a “certain community” to unite against him. Mr Modi even said the Congress would select the Indian cricket team “on the basis of religion”.

That’s not all. In a recent interview Mr Modi said the “whole world” was trying to influence the elections. This week, Mr Modi blamed the Congress for taking “truckloads” of money from billionaires Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has long spoken about the close ties that Mr Modi shares with the country’s two richest men.

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