Millions of Indians are voting in the next-to-last round of a grueling national election in the searing summer heat.

India’s main opposition party vowed to boost social spending and reverse what it views as a slide into autocracy as it laid out its campaign promises on Friday, two weeks before the start of a weeks-long, multi-phase general election.

Nearly 970 million people are eligible to vote in India's national elections that start Friday and will be held in phases until June 1.

India’s Parliament has taken a major step toward reserving 33% of the seats in its powerful lower house and in state legislatures for women to ensure more equal representation, an issue that languished for nearly three decades because of a lack of consensus among political parties.

India’s splintered opposition parties have decided to contest the 2024 national elections in their bid to unseat Prime Minister Narendra Modi and prevent his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party from achieving a third straight win.

India’s main opposition party, the Indian National Congress, is set to choose a person who is not a member of its dominant Nehru-Gandhi family as its next president as it struggles to recover before key upcoming elections.

Thousands of Indians have rallied under key opposition Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi, who made a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government over soaring unemployment and rising food and fuel prices.

India is the fourth hardest-hit country by the COVID-19 pandemic in the world after the U.S., Russia and Brazil. Indias health ministry said Tuesday that the nationwide tally had reached 440,215 cases, including 14,011 deaths. States remote from the capital including Assam in the northeast that initially reported few cases have plans to reimpose stringent lockdowns in certain districts. Port officials and workers earlier on Tuesday agreed to halt unloading cargo from the ship and another Russian ship at the port. South Korea reported 46 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, including 30 linked to international arrivals.