India holds biggest day of voting with Hindu nationalists gaining strength

A veiled Muslim woman shows her ink-marked finger after voting outside a polling station in Doda district, north of Jammu, April 17, 2014. Around 815 million people have registered to vote in the world's biggest election - a number exceeding the population of Europe and a world record - and results of the mammoth exercise, which concludes on May 12, are due on May 16. REUTERS/Mukesh Gupta

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.