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Legislative elections were held in India, the world's largest democracy, in four phases between April 20 and May 10, 2004. Over 670 million people were eligible to vote, electing 543 members of the 14th Lok Sabha (the House of the People, the lower house of the Indian legislature). On May 13, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party conceded defeat after a unexpectedly strong showing by the Indian National Congress, which while not winning a majority outright was able to put together a stable majority under the new Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh.
Seven states also held assembly elections to elect state governments along with the parliamentary elections.
Votes and seats are compared with those won in the 1999 election
| Party | Votes | % | Change | Seats | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All India Forward Bloc | 1,367,280 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 3 | +1 |
| All India Trinamool Congress | 8,047,771 | 2.1 | -0.5 | 2 | -6 |
| Asom Gana Parishad | 2,069,610 | 0.5 | - | 2 | - |
| Bahujan Samaj Party | 20,713,468 | 5.3 | +1.1 | 19 | +5 |
| Bharatiya Janata Party | 85,866,593 | 22.2 | -1.5 | 138 | -44 |
| Biju Janata Dal | 5,084,428 | 1.3 | +0.1 | 11 | +1 |
| Communist Party of India | 5,434,738 | 1.4 | -0.1 | 10 | +6 |
| Communist Party of India (Marxist) | 22,061,677 | 5.7 | +0.3 | 43 | +11 |
| Dravida Munnetra Kazhagham | 7,064,393 | 1.8 | +0.1 | 16 | +4 |
| Indian National Congress | 103,405,272 | 26.7 | -1.6 | 145 | +32 |
| Jammu and Kashmir National Conference | 493,067 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 2 | -2 |
| Jammu and Kashmir People's Democratic Party | 267,457 | 0.0 | - | 1 | - |
| Janata Dal (Secular) | 5,732,296 | 1.5 | +0.6 | 3 | +2 |
| Janata Dal (United) | 9,924,209 | 2.6 | -0.5 | 8 | -11 |
| Jharkhand Mukti Morcha | 1,846,843 | 0.5 | - | 5 | - |
| Kerala Congress | 353,529 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 1 | - |
| Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam | 1,679,870 | 0.4 | 0.0 | 4 | - |
| Mizo National Front | 182,864 | 0.0 | - | 1 | - |
| Muslim League of Kerala | 770,098 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 2 | +1 |
| Nagaland People's Front | 715,366 | 0.2 | - | 1 | - |
| Nationalist Congress Party | 6,915,740 | 1.8 | -0.5 | 9 | +1 |
| Pattali Maltltal Katchi | 2,169,020 | 0.5 | -0.1 | 6 | +1 |
| Rashtriya Janata Dal | 8,613,302 | 2.2 | -0.5 | 21 | +12 |
| Revolutionary Socialist Party | 1,717,228 | 0.4 | 0.0 | 3 | - |
| Samawajwadi Party | 16,645,356 | 4.3 | +0.5 | 36 | +10 |
| Shiromani Akali Dal | 3,506,681 | 0.9 | +0.2 | 8 | +6 |
| Shiv Sena | 7,056,075 | 1.8 | +0.2 | 12 | -3 |
| Sikkim Democratic Front | 153,409 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1 | - |
| Telugu Desam Party | 11,844,811 | 3.0 | -0.6 | 5 | -24 |
| Other parties and independents | 45,751,173 | 11.8 | - | 25 | - |
| Total | 387,453,223 | - | - | 543 | - |
Source: Election Commission of India.
There are a maximum of 545 members of Parliament: 543 elected, and two may be nominated by the President to represent the Anglo-Indian community. Repolling was ordered in four constituencies due to irregularities. The results in the remaining constituencies were as follows (parties recognised by the Election Commission as national parties are in italics, and regional or state parties parties in Roman font):
Counting began simultaneously on 13 May. Over 370 million of the 675 million eligible citizens voted, with election violence claiming 48 lives, less than half the number killed during the 1999 election. The Indian elections were held in phases in order to maintain law and order. A few states considered sensitive areas required deployment of the armed forces. The average enrolment of voters in each constituency is 1.2 million, although the largest constituency has 3.1 million.
The Election Commission of India is responsible for deciding the dates and conducting elections according to constitutional provisions. The Election Commission employed more than a million electronic voting machines for these elections.
According to the magazine India Today, 115.62 billion rupees (approx USD 2.6 billion) were expected to have been spent in campaigning for the elections by all political parties combined. Most of the money was spent on the people involved in the election. The Election Commission limited poll expenses to Rs. 2.5 million (USD 57,000 approx.) per constituency. Thus, the actual spending is expected to have been approximately 10 times the limit. About 6.5 billion rupees (approx. USD 150 million) are estimated to have been spent on mobilising 150,000 vehicles. About a billion rupees are estimated to have been spent on helicopters and aircrafts.
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had recommended premature dissolution of the 13th Lok Sabha (in accordance with a provision of the Constitution) to pave the way for early elections apparently in view of the recent good showing of the BJP in the Assembly elections in four states. The two "major parties" in India are the BJP (led by Vajpayee) and the Congress (led by Sonia Gandhi). The BJP fought the elections as part of the NDA while the Congress, for the first time, had forged an alliance with smaller like-minded parties at the Centre.
Most analysts believed the NDA would win the elections: this assessment was also supported by opinion polls. The economy had shown steady growth in the last few months and the disinvestment of government owned production units (continuation of India's liberalisation policies initiated in the early 1990s) had been on track. The Forex Reserves of India stood at more than USD 100 billion (7th largest in the world and a record for India). The service sector had also generated a lot of jobs. The party was supposed to have been riding on a wave of the so-called "feel good factor", typified by its promotional campaign "India Shining".
In the past, BJP has largely been seen as a hard-line Hindu party with close ties with the Hindu organisation the RSS. Over the years, the party has slightly distanced itself from its Hindutva policies. A change that is being questioned after the party's poor showing in the elections. These elections were marked by the campaign's emphasis on economic gains. From the last few elections, BJP had realised that its voter base had reached a ceiling and had concentrated on pre-poll rather than post-poll alliances. The foreign origin of Sonia Gandhi also constituted part of the NDA's campaign.
In contrast to NDA propaganda which had been high-profile and the source of much controversy and debate, Congress had a low profile campaign limited to regional media (in regional languages) instead of national media. The Congress Party was riding on slogans like "The Hand of Congress (the party's official symbol) is with the common man," indicating that it was banking on support from the vast majority of Indians and not so much on the upper middle class and the elite. According to their manifesto, Congress, if elected to power, would create 10 million new jobs, by employing more people in the government-owned companies and production units.
Though pre-poll predictons were for an overwhelming majority for the BJP, the exit polls (immediately after the elections and before the counting began) predicted a hung parliament. However, even the exit polls could only indicate the general trend and nowhere close to the final figures. There is also the general perception that as soon as the BJP started realising that events might not proceed entirely in its favour, it changed the focus of its campaign from India Shining to issues of stability.
The reverses in the pre-poll predictions are ascribed to various reasons depending on the point of view.
The rout of the ruling parties in the states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala in the general elections led to calls for the dissolution of the governments of these states.
The stock market (Bombay Stock Exchange) fell in the week prior to the announcement of the results due to fears of an unstable coalition. As soon as counting began, however, it became clear that the Congress coalition was headed for a sizeable lead over the NDA and the market surged, only to crash the following day when the left parties, whose support would be required for government formation, announced that it was their intention to do away with the disinvestment ministry. Following this, Manmohan Singh, the current Prime Minister and the prime architect of the economic liberalization of the early 1990s, hurried to reassure investors that the new government would strive to create a business-friendly climate.
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