India sets dates for general election

March 2 2009
India, the world’s largest democracy, will go to the polls next month as the ruling Congress party fights to hold on to office against a challenge from the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party.

The country’s Electoral Commission yesterday said the staggered election would begin on 16 April and stretch to 13 May. The poll count would be conducted on 16 May.


Political commentators predict that the election results will show the rise of state politicians against a backdrop of the waning power of national parties like the Congress party and the BJP.

Coalition building in the coming months will be at the heart of party strategies as they try to build a parliamentary majority. This process will determine whether LK Advani, the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, or Manmohan Singh, the Congress party’s choice for prime minister, will lead a new government.

N. Gopalaswamy, the chief election commissioner, said the multi-phase election was a massive undertaking that would try to reach out to 714m voters. School examinations, religious festivals and the harvest season had all been taken into account to agree a four week period that would allow time for the formation of a government before a constitutional deadline at the beginning of June.

Prakash Jawadakar, a spokesman for the opposition BJP, said the campaigning had already begun well before the official announcement of the date. Last week, Rahul Gandhi, the general secretary of the Congress Party, and Narendra Modi, the opposition’s chief minister of Gujarat, traded verbal blows over their leadership qualities.

The Congress party has regained confidence about its election prospects after state polls at the end of last year. Beating India’s anti-incumbency tendency, Congress was victorious in Delhi, Mizoram and Rajasthan.

In spite of job losses and criticism of India’s emergency services after the Mumbai attacks, the government’s cool-headed handling of the global financial crisis and the sparring between New Delhi and Islamabad have helped to revive Congress fortunes.

Lower inflation and good harvests are also expected to shore up support for the government, led by Mr Singh, the prime minister.

Senior Congress party leaders say the election is likely to mark the emergence of Mr Gandhi, the 38-year-old scion of the Gandhi-Nehru dynasty, as a political force in the land. He is playing a crucial role in the Congress party’s efforts to win over India’s younger voters.

With much of India’s 1.2bn population below the age of 30, the appeal of a younger generation of politicians is widely touted by commentators.