General Elections -

2014

-Akshay Chaturvedi-Electronics &

Comm.

The 2014 general election is taking place in nine phases in India, the longest election in the country's history, from 7 April to 12 May 2014 to constitute the 16th Lok Sabha. Voting will take place in all 543 parliamentary constituencies of India to elect members of parliament in the Lok Sabha. The result of this election will be declared on 16 May, before the 15th Lok Sabha completes its constitutional mandate on 31 May 2014.

According to the Election Commission of India, the electoral population in 2014 is 814.5 million, the largest in the world.

There is an increase in newly eligible voters of 100 million since the last general election in 2009. This will be the longest and the most expensive general election in the history of the country.

Background By constitutional requirement, elections to the Lok

Sabha must be held at most every five years or whenever parliament is dissolved by the president. The previous election, to the 15th Lok Sabha, was conducted in April–May 2009, and its term will naturally expire on 31 May 2014. The election is being organised and conducted by the Election Commission of India (ECI) and are held in multiple phases, to better handle the large electoral base and security concerns.

Since the last general election in 2009, the 2011 Indian anti-corruption movement by Anna Hazare, and other similar moves by Baba Ramdev and Arvind Kejriwal, have gathered momentum and political interest.[8]

 Kejriwal went on to form a separate political party of Aam Aadmi Party in November 2012. The 2012 presidential election, resulted in Pranab Mukherjee of Indian National Congress becoming the President.

Parties

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi was chosen to be the Prime Ministorial Candidate and He will lead the BJP’s campaign.  Murli Manohar Joshi and Sushma Swaraj were part of team for the campaign. Rajnath Singh, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani were the mentors for the BJP's campaign.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP):

MODI WAVE :  in support of the BJP campaign slogan that were premised on "Aab ki baar, Modi sarkar“. By the last day of campaigning on May 10, Narendra Modi would have undertaken the largest mass outreach in India's electoral history by travelling about 300,000 km for 437 public meetings in 25 states besides 1350 innovative 3D rallies.

In regards to foreign relations of India, Modi in a rally

in Arunachel Pradesh, bordering China with a history of disputes, sweared to protect the country and criticised "Chinese expansionism." Elsewhere, he also said that issues like trade facilitation and promoting Indian business abroad should be given importance.

The Indian National Congress had announced, on the fourth anniversary of the second United Progressive Alliance government, that its campaign for the election would be led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, INC chairperson Sonia Gandhi and general secretary Rahul Gandhi.

 Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has ruled himself out as a prime ministerial candidate. Rahul Gandhi told Dainik Bhaskar  that he was "ready to take charge" of any responsibility the party gave him. At the party meeting it was decided not to name a prime ministerial candidate amid fears it would turn the election into a presidential one.

Indian National Congress:

Following an electoral win from the 2013 Delhi election, the Aam Aadmi Part will be contesting from contested from 424 constituencies in India.

Days after Kejriwal resigned as the Chief Minister of Delhi in mid-February, the AAP announced its first 20 candidates. It would also contest 350 of the 543 seats in the election.

Party founder Kejriwal will compete against the BJP's prime ministerial candidate Modi from Varanasi. The AAP has also questioned the BJP campaign funding and alleged Modi had links with business tycoons who were sponsoring his campaign.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP):

In total there were 14 lakhs electronic voting machines.

On 16 April, India's Election Commission announced over 68% of eligible voters had casted their vote in the first four phases, compared to 58% observed overall voter turnout in the previous election.

Voters