General Election 2009

India held general elections to the 15th Lok Sabha in five phases between 16 April to 13 May 2009. With an electorate of 71.4 crore, it was the largest democratic election in the world to date. The United Progressive Alliance led by the Indian National Congress formed the government after obtaining the majority of seats based on strong results in Andhra Pradesh, Kerala,  Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. Thus Manmohan Singh became the first prime minister since Jawaharlal Nehru in 1962 to be re-elected after completing a full five-year term. The UPA was able to put together a comfortable majority with support from 322 members out of 543 members of the house. Though this is less than the 335 members who supported the UPA in the last parliament, UPA alone had a plurality of over 260 seats as opposed to 218 seats in the 14th Lok Sabha. Hence the government appears to be more stable than the previous one. The principle opposition party, Bhartiya Janata Party could secure only 116 and came a distant second. Its NDA allies have notched up 43 seats.

A VOTE FOR STABILITY

This election defied the predictions made by pre-poll predictions and exit polls and gave a clear mandate to the incumbent Congress government. According to many analysts after the election, many factors can be attributed for a landslide. According to one point of view the victory to the UPA government is attributed to saturation of caste-based identity politics, the focus on good governance and BJP's limitations, gave Congress the edge.

Factors responsible for the UPA victory
Rise in Congress vote bank
This election has clearly shown that Congress is once again making inroads among the Muslims and SC/ST. Moreover, Congress’s impressive performance in Uttar Pradesh added to its strength. It seems Congress is on the road to recover its former glory in UP.

Welfare schemes
Manmohan government in its former tenure initiated several welfare schemes which clearly garnered votes in the Lok Sabha elections. National rural employment guarantee Act and waiver of farmers loans were two examples of such schemes which directly benefited the rural masses.

Directionless opposition camp
Main opposition alliance and especially BJP was totally directionless during the course of the election campaign. They groped in the dark for the issues. Over and above, when they raised any issue that ultimately boomranged over them. The personal attack on Prime Minister was an example which was not liked by the people.