On Saturday, Rahul Gandhi, the Congress leader, claimed Mr Modi’s party “have openly said they will change, scrap, finish and throw out the constitution if they win the election”.
Support for Mr Modi, 73, has been growing despite record-high unemployment, soaring inflation and growing inequality. His party’s performance this year looks set to surpass that of 2019 when it won 303 seats.
His growing appeal is largely down to what his supporters and critics say is an amping up of nationalism to appeal to Hindus, who make up 80 per cent of the country’s 1.4 billion population.
In January, he caused outrage among Muslims when he fulfilled a long-held demand from the RSS that he open a Hindu temple on the site of a demolished 16th-century mosque. He has also been accused of giving Islamophobic speeches.
If Mr Modi wins another term as prime minister, many fear India will drift even further towards Right-wing ideologies and embolden the BJP to change India’s secular constitution, curtail civil liberties and further marginalise India’s minorities, especially Muslims.
Mallikarjun Kharge, opposition Congress president, said on Wednesday: “In this election, if you don’t defeat the BJP, then both our constitution and democracy will be at risk, along with your future.”