As India goes to polls, here's a map on how nations view the world's biggest election

And so it begins. The first phase of India’s elections – a mammoth and intensely complicated exercise – is finally underway. The elections – and its outcome – will be watched closely not just by Indians but by people and media from around the world.

Expectations are running high about the Congress-led coalition being turfed out and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party coming to power.

How does the outside world view this possibly game-changing election? We present a collection of quotes from editorials/newspaper reports from across the world in the interactive map below.

Click on a country name to read a quote from a prominent media report from that country – and discover how the world is weighing in on the biggest elections in the world.

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Here are the links to the stories from where the quotes have been taken.

AFP; The Guardian; The New York Times; The National; The Jakarta Globe; The Sydney Morning Herald; The Citizen; Deutsche Welle; South China Morning Post

Note: We have taken China as the country for the SCMP, although the newspaper is published in Hong Kong. Hong Kong does not yet appear on the map, so we have taken China for ease of viewing.