Analysis

For the determined vote rigger, new technology is no barrier to old-fashioned ballot-box skulduggery. This election, Indian officials are trying to stay a step ahead with a radical technology - the paper trail.
Vanessa Teague 

Nirupama Subramanian take us back to the North-east (mainly) for the fourth phase of elections in India. 

What is remarkable about the final phase of the Indian election is that the dominant Congress Party is scarcely in contention, writes Ashok Malik.

The sheer scale of the Indian elections can be mind boggling. Here are a few key dates and maps to help.
Ryan Sheales

In the second of her election phases series, Nirupama Subramanian reports on the North-East, with 2.7 million voters heading to the polls over four states and six constituencies.

The violent masculinity and lack of civility in this campaign have shattered any illusions of a changing public discourse about women's rights in India, says  Swati Parashar.

 

The impact of social media on the elections.

Nirupama Subramanian 

Varghese K George profiles Rahul Gandhi, a most unlucky and unlikely politician, despite his dynastic lineage. 

Indians love their movie stars, and political parties love the votes they deliver. But it is a most tempetuous love story, as Mosiqi Acharya explains. 

With so many contenders for so many votes and so many seats, polling in India has historically been a hit and miss affair. But the science of Indian psephology is evolving. Ashok Malik

As voting in the epic five-week ballot reaches the half-way mark, Nicholas Reece and Souresh Roy provide a formguide to the parties to watch - their histories, their values, their prospects.

 

Tomorrow India will have a new Prime Minister. The smart money says it will be the BJP's polarising Narendra Modi. Veteran Indian political commentator Swapan Dasgupta, visiting Melbourne, contemplates what that will mean.

When the hoopla of India's epic exercise of democracy settles, the winner will face a formidable task in reviving the nation's economy from the doldrums.

TCA Srinivasa Raghavan lays out the problems, identifies the solutions, and contemplates the hurdles.

Tomorrow is the crucial fifth phase of voting, the biggest day of the nine-phase, five-week elections schedule. Souresh Roy profiles the seats and tussles to watch. Photo: Rajasthani farmer/Flickr: Shreyans Bhansali

India's Melbourne-based intelligentsia gathered at the Australia India Institute today to watch the live feed of the count and dissect the Narendra Modi landslide.

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