KOLKATA:

Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi, the prime ministerial front-runner in India's mammoth general election, yesterday reiterated his strong stance against illegal immigrants, just days after a wave of sectarian killings in the north-eastern state of Assam. India is in the home stretch of a five-week election in which Modi's opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) looks set to emerge as the biggest group and which has heightened ethnic and religious tensions in many parts of the country.