India General Elections 2009

India General Elections 2009 : An Overview

The world's biggest democracy is all geared up for its 15th Lok Sabha Elections slated to start on 16th of April. A multi-lingual, multi-ethnic and multi-cultural society, India is a country know for its diversity and the Indian political system truly resembles it. With 7 National Parties, 48 State Parties, and 1000 Registered Unrecognized Parties contesting the 2009 elections, to say that the general elections in India are the 'Mother of all elections' in the world, won't be an exaggeration. Although, Indian National Congress (INC) Party and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are the two bigwigs of Indian politics, the dominance of other national, state, & regional parties can be adjudged from the fact that not a single party has been able to obtain a complete majority in the 543 seat lower house of the Parliament since 1984-85 general elections.

As alliance or coalition is the call of the day, at present there are 3 major alliances (INTACT as of today) trying their fate in 2009 elections -
1. United Progressive Alliance (UPA) - Current Ruling Party/Alliance- Led by Congress
Prime Ministerial Candidate - Manmohan Singh

• Congress (I) or INC - Oldest political party of India, led by Sonia Gandhi, has an all India presence and came as the single largest party in 2004 general elections. Current Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh hails from INC.
• Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) - Led by Sharad Pawar (previously a Congress member), has a strong presence in Maharashtra. But Mr. Pawar has already made his ambitions to become the PM of India clear, and so we can see a switch in the loyalities at the end of the elections.
• Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) - Led by M. Karunanidhi, has a good presence in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, current ruling party in Tamil Nadu
• Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) - Led by Shibu Soren, will be interesting to see how he woos voters after his defeat in bypoll assembly elections in Jan 2009
• All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) - Very minor presence in Hyderabad
• Sikkim Democratic Front - Ruling party of Sikkim led by Chief Minister Pawan Chamling
• Trinamool Congress - Led by Mamta Banerjee (previously a member of Congress), known for her agitation against Tata Nano plant in Singur, has a good presence in West Bengal. It will be interesting to see if this alliance can fetch any seats in West Bengal for the UPA
• Indian Union Muslim League - Very small presence in Kerela
• Republican Party of India (Athvale) - Small presence in Maharsahtra

2. Naitional Democratic Alliance (NDA) - Led by BJP Prime Ministerial Candidate - Lal Krishna Advani

• BJP - Main opposition party led by Lal Krishna Advani. BJP is very strong in North & Central India, but weak in South India (excpet Karnataka) and East India. Was in power as the NDA from 1999-2004, but lost to its counterpart UPA in 2004 general elections
• Shiv Sena - Leb by Bal Thackrey, has a strong presence in Maharshtra
• Janta Dal United (JDU) - Led by Nitish Kumar, party has presence in Bihar and Karnataka and is the current ruling party in the State of Bihar. Interestingly, it failed to win even a single seat in the recently conducted elections in Karnataka
• Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) - Led by Prakash Singh Badal, has strong presence in Punjab and is the current ruling party there. The party believes that RELIGION and POLITICS go hand-in-hand
• Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) - Led by Om Prakash Chautala, has presence in Haryana
• Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) - presence in Assam
• Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) - Led by Ajit Singh, has presence in Western Uttar Pradesh
• Nagaland People's Front (NPF) - presence in Nagaland

3. Third Front - Amalgamation of different parties

• Telugu Desam Party (TDP) - Led by Chandrababu Naidu, party has strong presence in Andhra Pradesh. TDP lost its ground to Congress in 2004 State elections and since then has gone back to its route level. With 42 seats at stake in AP, this party may play a significant role in boosting Third Front's hopes
• All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) - Spearheaded by J. Jayalalithaa, party has got strong presence in Tamil Nadu
• Communist Party Of India (CPI) - Led by Prakash Karat, party has got presence in West Bengal, Bihar, Kerela, Uttar Pradesh. Supported the UPA led government in the 14th Lok Sabha till July 2008, but withdrew its support over the government's decision to go ahead on the United States-India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act
• Communist Party of India Marxist (CPM) - Has strong presence in Tripura, Kerala, and West Bengal and is leading the state government in these states. It also supported the UPA led government in the 14th Lok Sabha till July 2008, but withdrew its support due to the fall-out with the government on the nuclear deal with the United States
• Janata Dal Secular - Led by former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda, JD(S) has got political presence mainly in Karnataka
• Telengana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) - presence in Andhra Pradesh, has aspirations to created a separate state Telangana from Andhra Pradesh. It supported the UPA government for the same reason, but withdrew its support later due to UPA's faliure to create Telangana
• All India Forward Bloc - has stronghold in West Bengal
• Revolutionary Socialist Party - has presence in West Bengal, Kerela, and Tripura
• Haryana Janhit Congress - has presence in Haryana

Apart from these three alliances, other poltical parties which are foreseen to play a major role in deciding the Power Structure of the 15th Lok Sabha are -

• Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD) - Led by Laloo Prasad Yadav, have supported the UPA government till date and vowed to support them after the 2009 general elections also. RJD has formed a secular alliance with Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) and Samajwadi Party to contest elections for 134 seats in Bihar, UP and Jharkhand. RJD has a good stronghold in Bihar and Kingmaker as Laloo Yadav boast he is, may turn one in this election.
• Samajwadi Party (SP) - Led by Mulayam Singh Yadav, supported the UPA government after the Left pulled out support on the nuclear deal issue. SP has a good stronghold in Uttar Pradesh
• Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) - Led by Ram Vilas Paswan, has good presence in Bihar. LJP has also sweared to support Manmohan Singh & UPA after the general elections.
• Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) - Current ruling party in UP, led by Mayawati a Prime Minister aspirant. In 2007, BSP came as a single party to win the majority in State elections since 1991, indicating its clout in India's most populated state.

With UP and Bihar sharing 120 out of the 543 Lok Sabha seats, and both biggies Congress and BJP not seen as favorites, it seems imminent that the party controlling the maximum number of seats in these states will have a pronounced say in who comes to power in the 15th Lok Sabha. As political parties are known for their tendency to switch loyalties and break alliances, any such move before or right after the elections shouldn't come as a big surprise ------ after all it's all about the country, isn't it ?

Schedule The 2009 general elections will be conducted in 5 different phases through April and May-

1. Phase 1 - 16th April 2009, Thursday - 17 States (124 Constituencies) 2. Phase 2 - 23rd April 2009, Thursday - 13 States (141 Constituencies) 3. Phase 3 - 30th April 2009, Thursday - 11 States (107 Constituencies) 4. Phase 4 - 7th May 2009, Thursday - 8 States (85 Constituencies) 5. Phase 5 - 9th May 2009, Wednesday- 9 States (86 Constituencies)

Counting of the votes will start on 16th May 2009 and is expected to finish on the same day.

Vote India and vote responsibly as your vote can create a Vibrant & Shining India!!

- Kartavya Jain