Over 960 million electors, 470 million of them women, will soon elect 543 Lok Sabha MPs by casting their ballots in 1.2 million booths overseen by 15 million officials across 28 states and nine Union territories in a multi-phase election.
In India's ‘first-past-the-post’ system, there's a perverse incentive for political parties and candidates to overtly antagonise one section of voters to secure another section’s votes.
For Indians stoically used to multiple phases of polling — three in just the ongoing Bihar assembly election – the spectre of delay in the world’s oldest democracy seems baffling.
Yamini Aiyar & Neelanjan Sircar write in Contemporary South Asia journal on how BJP's electoral performance and Modi's popularity have altered the dynamic of regional party politics in India.
Election Commission has begun work to change a range of poll laws to make them relevant to political landscape, check abuse of money power and ensure level playing field.
ANUBHUTI VISHNOI
The issue of the Muslim quota has the potential to polarise SCs, STs, and OBCs along religious lines in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. It benefits the BJP.
Germany’s erstwhile Christian Democratic Union govt, led by Angela Merkel, prevented sale of small arms to police forces in states they perceived had ‘bad human rights record’.
A theme has not yet emerged for BJP & people see lack of a contest, which makes it unexciting. For all these reasons, 2024 is turning out to be an unexpectedly theme-less election.
COMMENTS