INTRODUCTIONThe Indian general election of 2014 was held to constitute the 16th Lok Sabha, electing members of parliament for all 543 parliamentary constitution of India. Running in nine phases from 7 April to 12 May 2014, this was the longest election in the country's history.According to the Election Commision of India, 814.5 million people were eligible to vote, with an increase of 100 million voters since the last general election of 2009,making this the largest-ever election in the world.A total of 8,251 candidates contested for the 543 Lok Sabha seats. The average election turnout over all nine phases was around 66.38%, the highest ever in the history of Indian general elections.

BACKGROUND

By constitutional requirement, elections to the Lok Sabha must be held at an interval of 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 would have naturally expired on 31 May 2014. The election to the 16th Lok Sabha was organised and conducted by the Election Commission of India(ECI) and was held in multiple phases, to better handle the large electoral base and security concerns.

Since the last general election in 2009, the anti-corruption movement by Anna Hazare,and other similar moves by Baba Ramdev and Arvind Kejriwal gathered momentum and political interest.Kejriwal went on to form a separate political party, Aam Aadmi Party in November 2012. The 2012 presidential election,resulted in Pranab Mukherjee of Indian National Congress becoming the President. The Telangana movement for a separate Telangana state from Andhra Pradesh also continued with agitations, including the initial central government decision to grant statehood and then rescind it after counter-protests. Andhra politics was further shaken following death of its chief minister, Y. S. R. Reddy

THE ORGANIZERS

ELECTION COMMISION OF INDIA[ECI] The Election Commission of India is an

autonomous, constitutionally established federal authority responsible for administering all the electoral processes in the Republic of India. Under the supervision of the commission, free and fair elections have been held in India at regular intervals as per the principles enshrined in the Constitution. The Election Commission has the power of superintendence, direction and control of all elections to the Parliament of India and the state legislatures of elections to the office of the President of India and the Vice President of India.. The commission consists of a Chief Election Commissioner(CEC) and two Election Commissioners(EC), appointed by the President Of India

ELECTION DATES The Chief Election Commissioner of

India (CEC), V. S. Sampath announced the polling schedule on 5 March. Voting was scheduled to be held in nine phases from 7 April to 12 May, and the results of the election was announced on 16 May.

ISSUES

Important issues during the campaign included high inflation, lack of jobs, economic slow down, corruption, security and terrorism, religious division and communalism, and infrastructure such as roads, electricity and water. In another survey by Zee News for about 14% of people, corruption is the main issue in the election.

SOCIAL MEDIA AND CAMPAIGNING Amongst the social media,individuals came up with

satirical takes on sports, movies (in Hindi and English) and songs, amongst other things, in support of the BJP campaign slogan that were premised on "Aab ki baar, Modi sarkar" ([This time, [we will have a] Modi government]).Modi was noted for focusing, in his rallies across the country, on the 23 million first-time come-of-age voters.By the last day of campaigning on 10 May, Narendra Modi had undertaken the largest mass outreach in India's electoral history by travelling about 300,000 km for 437 public meetings in 25 states and 1350 innovative 3D rallies according to the BJP.

MAJOR POLITICIAL PARTIES IN THE FRAY

INC BJP AAP AIADMK DMK TDP AITMC SP BJD YSR CONGRESS MNS

JD(U) BSP NCP RLD SHIVSENA RPI LJP CPI CPI(M) RJD SADL

THE NDA The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is a centre-

right coalition of political parties in India. At the time of its formation in 1998, it was led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and had thirteen constituent parties. Its current convener is N. Chandrababu Naidu and honorary chairman is former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.Also representing the alliance are L. K. Advani, former deputy prime minister who is the acting chairman of the Alliance, Narendra Modi,current Prime Minister of India and Leader of house in Lok Sabha; Arun Jaitley, Leader of house in the Rajya Sabha.The coalition was in power from 1998 to 2004. From 2004 to 2014 i.e. for a period of 10 years it found its expansion difficult. However, defying what many psephologists predicted, the alliance stormed back to power in the elections held in April/May 2014. Its leader, Narendra Modi was sworn-in Prime Minister of India on 26 May.

THE UPA The United Progressive Alliance

(UPA) is a coalition of centre-left political parties in India formed after the 2004 general election.One of the members of UPA is Indian National Congress,whose president Sonia Gandhi is also the chairperson of the UPA.

THE THIRD FRONT

Fourteen political parties including the Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India, Revolutionary Socialist Party, All India Forward Bloc, AIADMK, Janata Dal, Samajwadi Party, Biju Janata Dal, Nationalist Congress Party, Janata Dal, Naga People's Front, Sikkim Democratic Front, Jharkhand Vikas Morcha and Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh participated in a convention of the parties not in alliance with the NDA nor UPA, which was held on 30 October 2013.On 5 February 11 parties announced that they would work as one bloc on a "common agenda" in parliament. These included the CPI(M), CPI, RSP, AIFB, Samajwadi Party, JD(U), AIADMK, AGP, JVM, JD(S) and BJD.However, there was speculation that the AGP and BJD were still in preparatory talks to re-join the NDA. A consensus on a prime ministerial candidate, however, was not achieved. Though CPI (M) has sought to build what it terms a "secular and democratic alternative" to the INC and BJP, general secretary Prakash Karat discarded the notion that these moves would result in a Third Front electoral alliance. He also suggested a possible Third Front would only emerge after the election

OTHER PARTIES...

THE AAM AADMI PARTY[AAP] The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), formed in 2012,

contested 432 seats and won 4 seats. The party's manifesto focused on anti-corruption measures.Earlier in 2013, the party had made an impressive electoral debut by winning the second highest number of seats in the Delhi Legisltive Assembly elections. After forming a short-lived minority government in Delhi, AAP was seen as a major challenger to the other political parties. However, the party lost deposits on 413 seats,surpassing the record of Doordarshi Party, which had lost deposit on 321 seats in 1991.AAP's leader Arvind Kejriwal unsuccessfully contested against the BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi from Varanasi.

THE AIADMK The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra

Kazhagam (AIADMK) opted not to join any alliance and contested all seats in Tamil Nadu on its own. Party leader Jayalalithaa told a rally in March that she would modernise the armed forces by enhancing their capabilities so that they were on par with the superpowers. In saying so she criticised the UPA's governance including its economic, diplomatic and defence policies, adding that modernisation of the armed forces was hindered by steady curtailing of its funding.AIADMK managed to win 37 out of a total of 39 parliamentary constituencies in the state of Tamil Nadu.

THE TRINAMOOL CONGRESS[TMC] All-India Trinamool Congress leader Mamata

Banerjee declared that the party would contest all 42 seats in West Bengal by itself, making this the first occurrence of the party contesting a general election in West Bengal without an alliance with either of the two largest parties, BJP and INC. Banerjee told a rally in Cooch Behar district, near the international border with Bangladesh, that she would take up the issue of the border enclaves upon ascertaining the views of the local people living in the adversely possessed areas.

CELEBRITY CANDIDATES

Nagma (actress)(INC),Bhaichung Bhutia(TMC), Bappi Lahiri(BJP),Gul Panag(AAP),Jaaved Jaaferi(AAP), Kirron Kher (BJP), Mahesh Manjrekar (MNS), Mohammad Kaif (INC), Moon Moon Sen (TMC), Nandan Nilekani (INC), P. C. Sorcar, Jr. (BJP), Paresh Rawal (BJP), Prakash Jha(JD(U)), Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore(BJP), Rakhi Sawant(Rashtriya Aam Party), Ravi Kishan (INC), Hema Malini(BJP), Shatrughan Sinha(BJP), Vinod Khanna(BJP), Raj Babbar (INC), Manoj Tiwari (BJP), Jaya Prada(RLD), and Smriti Irani(BJP)

STAR CAMPAIGINERS NARENDRA MODI L.K.ADVANI RAJNATH SINGH NITIN GADKARI GOPINATH

MUNDE AMIT SHAH N.CHANDRABABU

NAIDU RAJ THACKERAY UDDHAV

THACKERAY SMRITI IRANI

RAHUL GANDHI SONIA GANDHI SHARAD PAWAR ARVIND KEJRIWAL PRIYANKA

GANDHI PRITHVIRAJ

CHAVAN MANIKRAO

THAKRE

K.CHANDRASHEKHAR RAO

LALU PRASAD YADAV

MEDHA PATKAR

NARENDRA D. MODI

NARENDRA MODI Narendra Damodardas Modi ,born 17 September 1950) is the 15th and

current Prime Minister of India. Modi, a leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), also served as the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001–14. He is currently the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Varanasi constituency.

Modi was a key strategist for the BJP in the successful 1995 and 1998 Gujarat state election campaigns. He became Chief Minister of Gujarat in October 2001 and served longer in that position than anyone else to date. Modi was a major campaign figure in the 2009 general election, which the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance lost to the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA). He led the BJP in the 2014 general election, which resulted in an outright majority for the BJP in the Lok Sabha (the lower house of the Indian parliament) – the last time that any party had secured an outright majority in the Lok Sabha was in 1984.

Modi is a Hindu Nationalist and a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).He is a controversial figure both within India as well as internationally as his administration has been criticised for the incidents surrounding the 2002 Gujarat riots.Modi has been praised for his economic policies, which are credited with creating an environment for a high rate of economic growth in Gujarat.However, his administration has also been criticised for failing to make a significant positive impact upon the human development of the state.

RAHUL GANDHI

RAHUL GANDHI Rahul Gandhi (born 19 June 1970) is the Vice-President of the

Indian National Congress party and the Chairperson of the Indian Youth Congress and the National Students Union of India. Gandhi served as a general secretary in the All India Congress Committee and represents Amethi as its Member of Parliament (MP). He is the second-ranked member of the Congress Working Committee.

Gandhi comes from the politically influential Nehru–Gandhi family. His late father, Rajiv Gandhi, had served as the Prime Minister of India and had been President of the Congress Party. His mother Sonia Gandhi is currently serving as the President of the Congress Party. He grew up in New Delhi, where his grandmother Indira Gandhi, was serving as Prime Minister until her assassination in 1984. His father was likewise assassinated in 1991. Due to security concerns, Gandhi constantly had to shift schools in his youth. He studied abroad under a pseudonym, his identity being known only to a select few including university officials and security agencies.

ARVIND KEJRIWAL

ARVIND KEJRIWAL Arvind Kejriwal (born 16 August 1968) is an Indian politician and

former civil servant who served as the 7th Chief Minister of Delhi from 28 December 2013 to 14 February 2014. He is the leader of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

Kejriwal is a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur and worked for the Indian Revenue Service (IRS) as a Joint Commissioner in the Income Tax Department.

In 2006, Kejriwal was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Emergent Leadership recognising his involvement in a grassroots movement (Parivartan) using right-to-information legislation in a campaign against corruption. The same year, after resigning from the IRS, he donated his Magsaysay award money as a corpus fund to found the Public Cause Research Foundation, a non-governmental organisation (NGO).

In 2012, he launched the Aam Aadmi Party, and defeated Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit in the 2013 Delhi Legislative Assembly election. Following the election, he took office as the Chief Minister of Delhi on 28 December 2013. He resigned 49 days later, on 14 February 2014, stating he did so because of his government's inability to pass his proposed anti-corruption legislation due to a lack of support from other political parties.

THE RESULTS The results were declared on 16 May, fifteen days

before the 15th Lok Sabha completes its constitutional mandate on 31 May 2014. The counting exercise was held at 989 counting centres. The National Democratic Alliance, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party, won a sweeping victory, taking 336 seats. The BJP itself won 31.0% of all votes and 282 (51.9%) of all seats. It is the first time since the 1984 Indian general elections that a party has won enough seats to govern without the support of other parties.The United Progressive Alliance, led by the Indian National Congress, won 58 seats, 44 (8.1%) of which were won by the Congress, that won 19.3% of all votes.It was the Congress party's worst defeat in a general election. BJP and its allies won the right to form the largest majority government since the 1984 general election.

THE RESULTS

BJP-OrangeCONGRESS-BlueTMC-GreyAIADMK-Light greenSHIVSENA- Dark GreenAnd others……

BECAUSE THE FUTURE OF INDIA LIES IN OUR HANDS

PLEASE VOTE FOR A BETTER INDIA

THANK YOU