On Sunday, more than 20 million residents of the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh lined up outside polling booths to cast their vote in a highly polarised regional election that is widely regarded as a bellwether for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity in the country. The gigantic state, with a population of 150 million registered voters, is going to the polls in a seven-phase election that started earlier this month. The vote is widely seen as a test of the prime minister’s popularity before the general elections in 2024. “Uttar Pradesh is considered a bastion of the ruling Hindu nat…