Indian general election, 2014
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
According to the Election Commission of India, the electoral population in 2014 is 81.45 crores, the largest in the world.[3] There is an increase of 10 crores newly eligible voters.[4] This also will be the longest and the most expensive general election in the history of the country with the Election Commission of India estimating that the election will cost the exchequer
35 billion, excluding the expenses incurred for security and individual political parties.[5] Parties are expected to spend
3.05 thousand crores (about US$500 million) in the election, according
to the Centre for Media Studies. This is three times the amount spent in
the previous election and is the world's second highest after the US$7 billion spent on the 2012 U.S. presidential election.[6] Though unelected, incumbent Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has ruled himself out as a prime ministerial candidate.[7]Contents
- 1 Background
- 2 Organisation
- 3 Retiring Loksabha MPs
- 4 Campaign
- 5 Parties and alliances
- 5.1 National Democratic Alliance
- 5.2 United Progressive Alliance
- 5.3 Third Front
- 5.4 Samajwadi Party
- 5.5 Left fronts
- 5.6 Aam Aadmi Party
- 5.7 All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
- 5.8 All India Forward Bloc
- 5.9 Bahujan Samaj Party
- 5.10 Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation
- 5.11 Janata Dal (United)
- 5.12 Maharashtra Navnirman Sena
- 5.13 Sikkim Democratic Front
- 5.14 Trinamool Congress
- 5.15 YSR Congress Party
- 6 Opinion polls
- 7 Controversies
- 8 Election
- 9 See also
- 10 References
- 11 External links
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 normally 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, have gathered momentum and political interest.[8] The BJP also made inroads by winning a majority of the Vidhan Sabha in the Goa election and winning despite a tradition of anti-incumbency in Punjab. However, it lost governing in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and its southern bastion of Karnataka to the INC. It also failed in its having its nominated candidate with the 2012 presidential election, particularly because allies such as the Shiv Sena and Janata Dal (United) failed to follow coalition lines. Similarly, the Telangana movement for a separate Telangana from Andhra Pradesh also continued with agitations, including the initial central government decision to grant statehood and then rescind it after counter-protests. The move was accompanied by calls for other separate areas including Vidharba and Gorkhaland. Andhra politics was further shaken following death of its chief minister, Y. S. R. Reddy. His son, Y. S. Jaganmohan Reddy, then broke from the INC and founded the YSR Congress taking several politicians with him.
On 8 December 2013, four legislative assembly elections resulted in victories or pluralities for the BJP in all provinces. The BJP won Rajasthan from the INC, it won a plurality in the INC bastion of Delhi (where there was a hung assembly) and held on to Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. The BJP's prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, was generally credited in the media for the result.[9][10] However, in Madhya Pradesh the party's national vice-president and MP Prabhat Jha said of the Muslim vote: "Definitely they voted for us. More than 70% of the Muslim voters backed BJP's programmes and policies." Indore's Qazi Abdul Rehman Farooqui suggested that it was Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan that ensured the result was an even bigger BJP majority saying that "had Modi not been projected as the BJP's prime ministerial candidate, Chouhan would have got more votes."[11] The BJP's Arun Jaitley suggested the INC-led UPA government was now a lame duck.[12]
Organisation
Use of technology
In January 2013, the Election Commission of India announced that it would be using an SMS based alert system called Communication Plan for Election (COMET) during the election. The system, aimed at sending messages to lakhs of government officials on election duty, was successfully deployed in the provincial assembly elections in Goa, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Manipur in early 2012 and in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat in late 2012.The COMET system "uses coded text messages through mobile phones to collect data about officials, information about scheduled events like staff reaching the polling station, mock polls conducted, start of polling, voting percentages every two hours, number of voters in after voting time was over, and whether the poll party reached safely at the high security Electronic Voting Machine (EVMs) deposit centre." The system would also send alerts to the local police in case of disturbances at any polling station.[13]
Changes
Satendra Singh, a doctor with a disabilty,[14] showed the lack of preparedness by the Election Commission of India (ECI) towards electors with disabilities through the Right to Information Act .[15] The Chief Electoral Office in Delhi, Vijay Dev then started a campaign on providing accessibility for the disabled, along with him. Singh conducted sensitisation workshops for election officers and helped in setting up a registration link for voters with disabilities to register to vote and provide their requirements.[16]Dates
The election will be held over multiple phases during the months April and May.[17] The final session of parliament started on 6 February and ended on 21 February. Amongst the agenda in the final session is passing the The Lokpal and Lokayuktas Bill, 2013 in tackling corruption and the creation of Telegana.[18] Electoral Commissioner V. S. Sampath said that Tamil Nadu could vote in one phase, while also considering DMK's proposal to transfer Tamil Nadu Deputy General of Police K. Ramanujam, who is serving as extended terms after his superannuation to ensure a free and fair election.[19]Simulataneously, elections will be held for the Vidhan Sabhas of Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim.[20]
The Chief Election Commissioner of India (CEC), V. S. Sampath announced the polling schedule on 5 March with voting to be held in nine phases from 7 April to 12 May. The result of the election will be announced on 16 May.[21]
Schedule
Polling held Polling ongoing Polling to be held| [hide]Region | Total constituencies | Election dates and number of constituencies[22] | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
| Progress | 6 | 6 + 1* | 91 | 7 | 121 | 117 | 89 | 64 | 41 | |
| Andhra Pradesh | 42 | – | – | – | – | – | – | 17 | 25 | – |
| Arunachal Pradesh | 2 | – | 2 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Assam | 14 | 5 | – | – | 3 | – | 6 | – | – | – |
| Bihar | 40 | – | – | 6 | – | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 6 |
| Chhattisgarh | 11 | – | – | 1 | – | 3 | 7 | – | – | – |
| Goa | 2 | – | – | – | 2 | – | – | – | – | – |
| Gujarat | 26 | – | – | – | – | – | – | 26 | – | – |
| Haryana | 10 | – | – | 10 | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Himachal Pradesh | 4 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 4 | – |
| Jammu & Kashmir | 6 | – | – | 1 | – | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | – |
| Jharkhand | 14 | – | – | 4 | – | 6 | 4 | – | – | – |
| Karnataka | 28 | – | – | – | – | 28 | – | – | – | – |
| Kerala | 20 | – | – | 20 | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Madhya Pradesh | 29 | – | – | 9 | – | 10 | 10 | – | – | – |
| Maharashtra | 48 | – | – | 10 | – | 19 | 19 | – | – | – |
| Manipur | 2 | – | 1 | – | – | 1 | – | – | – | – |
| Meghalaya | 2 | – | 2 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Mizoram | 1 | – | 1* | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Nagaland | 1 | – | 1 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Odisha | 21 | – | – | 10 | – | 11 | – | – | – | – |
| Punjab | 13 | – | – | – | – | – | – | 13 | – | – |
| Rajasthan | 25 | – | – | – | – | 20 | 5 | – | – | – |
| Sikkim | 1 | – | – | – | 1 | – | – | – | – | – |
| Tamil Nadu | 39 | – | – | – | – | – | 39 | – | – | – |
| Tripura | 2 | 1 | – | – | 1 | – | – | – | – | – |
| Uttar Pradesh | 80 | – | – | 10 | – | 11 | 12 | 14 | 15 | 18 |
| Uttarakhand | 5 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 5 | – |
| West Bengal | 42 | – | – | – | – | 4 | 6 | 9 | 6 | 17 |
| Andaman and Nicobar Islands | 1 | – | – | 1 | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Chandigarh | 1 | – | – | 1 | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Dadra and Nagar Haveli | 1 | – | – | – | – | – | – | 1 | – | – |
| Daman and Diu | 1 | – | – | – | – | – | – | 1 | – | – |
| Lakshadweep | 1 | – | – | 1 | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| National Capital Territory of Delhi | 7 | – | – | 7 | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Puducherry | 1 | – | – | – | – | – | 1 | – | – | – |
| Constituencies contested | 543 | 6 | 6 + 1* | 91 | 7 | 121 | 117 | 89 | 64 | 41 |
| Total constituencies completing polling by this phase end |
6 | 13* | 104 | 111 | 232 | 349 | 438 | 502 | 543 | |
Retiring Loksabha MPs
- This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
| MP | Constituency | Party | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Palaniappan Chidambaram | Sivaganga, Tamil Nadu | INC | His son, Karti P. Chidambaram, will contest his seat;[24] he will seek nomination to the Rajya Sabha[25] |
| Khagen Das | Tripura West, Tripura | CPI(M) | Old age[26] |
| Badri Ram Jakhar | Pali, Rajasthan | INC | His daughter, Munni Devi Godara, will run from his seat.[27] |
| Kailash Chandra Joshi | Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh | BJP | Old age.[28] |
| Suresh Kalmadi | Pune, Maharashtra | INC | The party denied him the ticket over allegations of corrpution for his handling of the 2010 Commonwealh Games.[29] |
| Ram Singh Kaswan | Churu, Rajasthan | BJP | His son, Rahul Kaswan, will run from his seat.[30] |
| Sharad Pawar | Baramati, Maharashtra | NCP | After the 2009 election, Pawar announced that would be the last election in public life. He also explainied a desire for a younger generation of leaders to emerge. Instead he will seek nomination to the Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra.[original research?] |
| Baju Ban Riyan | Tripura East, Tripura | CPI(M) | Old age.[26] |
| Navjot Singh Sidhu | Amritsar, Punjab | BJP | Amidst controversy[31] |
| Yashwant Sinha | Hazaribagh, Jharkand | BJP | His son, Jayant Sinha, will contest his seat;[25] |
| Lalji Tandon | Luckow, Uttar Pradesh | BJP | BJP President Rajnath Singh was declared the BJP candidate from the seat. While BJP officials expressed willingness to accommodate Tandon from another Uttar Pradesh constituency, he refused to run stating it would be either his current seat of Lucknow or none. BJP officials pointed to Tandon's likely nomination to the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh.[citation needed] |
| Manish Tiwari | Ludhiana, Punjab | INC | After initial speculation that Tiwari would not contest re-election from Ludhiana given the competitive nature of the constituency and a general mood of anti-incumbency, Tiwari declared that he would not run for any seat due to health reasons. However, there is expectation that he will be nominated for the Rajya Sabha from Punjab.[citation needed] |
| Laxman Tudu | Mayurbhanj, Odisha | BJD | The party denied him a ticket.[32] |
| Gurudas Dasgupta | Ghatal, West Bengal | CPI | Old age.[33] |
No comments:
Post a Comment