NEW DELHI (Reuters) -Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi transferred 75 billion rupees ($845 million) to women in election-bound Bihar on Friday under an employment plan launched by his ruling alliance as it tries to retain power in the crucial eastern state.

India’s third most populous state and also one of its poorest, Bihar is ruled by Modi’s National Democratic Alliance and is scheduled to hold an election to its state assembly in the coming weeks.

Women voters have turned out in greater numbers in the past decade, reversing a trend of men easily outnumbering women at the polls, and political parties have competed to attract them.

Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party lost its outright majority in the federal parliament in last year’s national election, forcing him to rely on support from r

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