Analysis

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.

The polls open next week on the epic five-week Indian Election 2014. (From left) Melbourne University's Dr Pradeep Taneja, Australia India Institute (AII) Director Amitabh Mattoo and eminent journalist and AII Fellow Nirupama Subramanian sum up the form of the candidates and the campaign.

Despite the sensitivities of the powderkeg region, foreign policy rarely factors in the domestic rhetoric of Indian political campaigns. Nirupama Subramanian explores cross-border relationships. 

Image: Muhammad Ali Jinnah, founder of Pakistan, with Mahatma Gandhi, Bombay, 1944.

The writing was long on the wall for a BJP win and a Congress rout. But the scale of it has left Modi supporters and detractors alike reeling. Was it a victory for policy, or strategy? Mosiqi Acharya investigates. 

Many dark and murky corners remain in Indian politics, but 'The Common Man's Party' - AAP - has changed the political landscape, regardless of how it fares in the final count. 

Joy Purkayastha

On the looming fifth day of India's epic vote the destinies of two celebrity candidates will be decided. Ashok Malik contemplates what their real-life stories reveal of the political landscape.  

Narendra Modi has never been part of India's cliquish political culture. But his BJP's aggressive, unwavering, focused strategy has capitalised on a dynasty's complacency and a nation's hopes. By Pradeep Taneja.

India's looming election has more in common with Australia than you might think.
Harsh Shrivastava

 

 

Voting begins in the epic 2014 Indian election tomorrow. In the first in a series profiling the character, history and expectations of the various regions as they get their turn to vote, Nirupama Subramanian visits the remote north-east.

With the marathon 6-week vote now in the home stretch, get up to speed with the politics, the players, and the pretenders in the 2014 Indian election. A primer by Amitabh Mattoo and Nicholas Reece.

Pages