India holds biggest day of voting with Hindu nationalists gaining strength

A woman casts her vote inside a booth as a polling officer (R) watches at a polling station in Amroha in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh April 17, 2014. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi

BANGALORE (Reuters) - India held the biggest day of its mammoth general election on Thursday, with a quarter of its 815 million-strong electorate eligible to vote during a week of fresh blows for the ruling Congress party and gains for the Hindu nationalist opposition.

Narendra Modi, the prime-ministerial candidate of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has been wooing voters with promises to rescue India from its slowest economic growth in a decade and create jobs for its booming young population.