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Race for top job begins in world's largest democracy
Staggered parliamentary elections to decide who will get to govern India the next five years began this week starts, with the Hindu hardline BJP party, voted out 10 years ago, widely seen as having the upper hand.
The nine-phase polling that will end May 12. The nationwide vote count will take place May 16.
The massive exercise will involve 814 million electorate, with 120-150 million first-time voters, hundreds of candidates — nominations are still being filed — and dozens of political parties all over the country.
"Any election that India has seen has been an important exercise because nowhere so many people go out and vote together," political expert Mridula Mukherjee told IANS.
Exploiting popular anger against the Congress-led government, BJP's prime ministerial candidate and Hindutva icon Narendra Modi has been leading his party's charge asking people to elect at least 300 MPs from his National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
Many speculate that the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) which has ruled India since 2004 will secure a majority in the 545-member Lok Sabha or Parliament.
Ranged against both the UPA and NDA are regional parties with devoted pockets of support such as the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party (Uttar Pradesh), Biju Janata Dal (Orissa), the DMK and AIADMK (Tamil Nadu), the Trinamool Congress (West Bengal) and the Janata Dal-United and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (Bihar). All of them could play a major role in the event of another hung parliament.
Any party or coalition will need 272 seats to form a government.
The Congress feels that pollsters predicting its defeat will be proved wrong again — as it happened in the 2004 and 2009 elections.
Since he was made head of the BJP election campaign, Modi, still the Gujarat chief minister, has grown and grown, becoming the main focus point in the election.
The 63-year-old has hoisted his aggressive persona on a party which for decades believed in collective leadership. He has attempted to give up his Hindu hardliner image without giving up Hindutva politics.
I n this make or break battle to win the parliamentary election and govern India, the country's politicians have been unsparing in personal attacks and stooping to new lows in political discourse. One candidate was even arrested for his hate speech. There are also some who have praised their political opponents - much to the surprise of their rivals.
Here is a lowdown on the choicest of barbs, invectives and, even, some approbation:
• Narendra Modi: BJP's prime ministerial candidate has lashed out at Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and at the Congress at various rallies. Here's a sample:
"Sonia Gandhi should answer the people on who helped the two Italian marines get safe passage from India...Just because they are from Italy, they cannot be subjected to different treatment." The remark was on Sonia Gandhi's Italian lineage.
"Sonia Gandhi has told Rahul that power is poison. Who has been in power for most of the time during the last 60 years? In whose stomach has this poison gone? Who is spewing this poison? Who is harvesting the poison? They (Congress) are the ones who sow the seeds of poison."
"The shahzada (Rahul) and his matashree (Sonia) are just concerned about being in power. When they can forget you, why will you remember them? How long will you remember them?"
• Sonia Gandhi: The Congress chief has not named Modi directly but has described him as a "liar".
"They say they will change everything in one day with a magic wand. Will the country chose as the prime minister a person who is a big liar?"
"I firmly believe that you (the people of northern Karnataka) will not allow those who sow the seeds of poison, who don't believe in secular credentials and who play the politics of instigating violence to succeed."
• BJP legislator Heeralal Regar, threatened to strip Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.
"Sonia and Rahul Gandhi should be stripped off their clothes and sent back to Italy." He subsequently apologised for the remarks.
• Imran Masood: The Congress Lok Sabha candidate from Saharanpur said at a public rally he "will not allow (Narendra) Modi to make Gujarat out of UP". He then allegedly threatened "to chop Modi into pieces", adding 42 percent of the population in Uttar Pradesh was Muslim as compared to the four percent in Gujarat. He was arrested on March 29.
• Sharad Pawar: A day after Modi criticized the agriculture minister over the state of the hailstorm-hit farmers in Maharashtra, Pawar hit back, saying Modi needed to be treated in a mental hospital for talking rubbish.
• Salman Khurshid: The external affairs minister didn't mince words in attacking Modi. "We don't accuse you (Modi) of killing people... Hamara aarop hai ki tum 'napunsak' (impotent) ho. (Our accusation is that you are impotent). You couldn't stop the killers," he added.
• P. Chidambaram: Hitting back at BJP charges against his tenure in the finance ministry, Chidambaram said: "There are deep flaws in his (Modi's) character. He cannot resist from making such provocative and derogatory remarks".
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