The most democratic exercise in the world will begin on Friday in India, when ballots will be cast by 969 million registered voters to elect 543 members of the Lok Sabha, which is India’s lower house of parliament. This election will be the most democratic exercise in the world overall. In the history of the globe, this election will be the most democratic exercise ever. The election that is due to take place in the near future is going to be the most comprehensive democratic exercise that has ever been carried out anywhere in the world. Beginning on April 19 and continuing until the conclusion of the election, the election will be conducted in seven stages, each of which will include a different region of the country.
At the moment, 86 percent of the seats in the Lok Sabha that are accessible are held by ten of the political parties that are based in the nation that has the highest population in the entire world. Despite the fact that there are over 2,500 political parties in the nation that has the greatest population in the world, this is the situation that has arisen.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is now representing the incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi, claims to be the largest political organization in the world, claiming that it has approximately 180 million members.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu nationalist group that is on the far right, gave birth to the Bharatiya Jana Sangh party in the year 1980. The RSS is an outgrowth of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh party, which was an extension of the RSS.
RSS is a group that promotes for India to be recognized as a Hindu nation. It was founded in 1925 and is modeled after fascist organizations and European ethnonationalism movements. The RSS was created in 1925. Hundreds of Hindu right-wing organizations, including the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), draw their ideological inspiration from the secret organization that is only open to men. This organization is a clandestine organization. There are a number of notable leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), including Modi, who are among the lifelong members of this organization.
Soon after the controversial declaration of a state of emergency in 1975 by Indira Gandhi, who was acting as Prime Minister of the Congress party at the time, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was created. This occurred not long after the situation had become contentious. The opposition to the emergency, which was a major premise that led to the formation of a coalition of anti-Congress parties in 1977, was voiced by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who was one of the most well-known leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Sangh.
Vajpayee, along with his close aide Lal Krishna Advani, created the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the year 1980. However, the alliance was only able to last for two years before it eventually disintegrated owing to political infighting. Despite the fact that Vajpayee was the first Prime Minister of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 1996, his administration only managed to survive for thirteen days under his leadership. During the first thirteen months of his return to power, which lasted from 1998 to 1999, and then again from 1999 to 2004, he remained in power. In the history of the United States, he was the only prime minister to fulfill a complete term who was not linked with Congress.
When Modi was in his 20s, he joined the RSS. He is now 73 years old and was born and raised in the state of Gujarat, which is located in the western region of India. Additionally, previous to the Bharatiya Jana Sangh’s metamorphosis into the BJP, he was a member of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh. After a long and successful career, Modi eventually became the Chief Minister of Gujarat, a position he held for more than a decade. He worked his way up through the ranks of the government.
As a result of Modi’s own initiative, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was able to secure its very first majority administration in the year 2014, and he has been in power ever since. The city of Varanasi, which is situated in the northern region of the state of Uttar Pradesh, holds a tremendous religious significance for the Hindu majority that resides there. In order to extend his term in office for a third time, he is running for re-election in this city.
Indian National Congress
During the time that the British were in control of the Indian subcontinent, the Congress party was founded in 1885. It is the oldest political party in India. The “grand old party” has been in power in India for more than two-thirds of the years since the country gained its independence in 1947. Jawaharlal Nehru, the country’s Prime Minister, was trained in the West and is credited with laying the foundations for India’s liberal and secular policies.
In India, Indira Gandhi, who was Nehru’s daughter, was the country’s first and only female prime minister. In addition, the Congress adopted a number of historic economic changes in 1991, which paved the path for the development of an economy based on free market principles.
After Modi’s victory in 2014, however, the Congress party has been having a difficult time.
After a dismal showing in the most recent parliamentary elections in 2019, Rahul Gandhi, who was Modi’s most ardent adversary and the most prominent campaigner for the Congress party, resigned from his position as party head. In spite of this, the 53-year-old, four-time member of parliament continues to be the focal point of India’s opposition politics and the primary focus of Modi’s efforts.
His father Rajiv Gandhi, his grandmother Indira, and his great-grandfather Nehru all served as prime ministers and led the country for more than 37 years. He is a descendant of the Gandhi-Nehru dynasty. These three individuals all led the country.
In the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), which is led by the Congress party and consists of 26 members, Gandhi is the most prominent representative of the opposition alliance. In order to revitalize his election campaign and capitalize on the dissatisfaction that people feel regarding rural suffering, unemployment, and income disparity, he organized two marches that spanned the entire country.
Wayanad, which is located in the southern state of Kerala, is where Gandhi is running for office in this year’s election.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)
The Aam Aadmi Party, also known as the Common Person’s Party, emerged from a powerful anticorruption campaign in 2011. This movement was led by Anna Hazare, a self-proclaimed crusader who was supported by Arvind Kejriwal, who was a close colleague of Hazare. The All India Pradesh (AAP) is a member of the INDIA alliance for this election.
With the formation of the AAP in 2012 and the formation of a state government in the national capital region of Delhi in 2015, Kejriwal conducted an unanticipated political upset for established parties such as the BJP and the Congress. Kejriwal is a fervent opponent of Delhi’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi. From that point on, Kejriwal has served as the Chief Minister of Delhi. It is also the party that governs Punjab state.
On the other hand, the pre-election arrests of some of the AAP’s high-profile leaders, including Kejriwal, in an alleged corruption case have cast doubt on the party’s chances of winning this year’s election. According to the party, the claims are nothing more than “a desperate attempt to malign the image” of Kejriwal for the purpose of gaining political advantage.
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)
The Democratic Progressive Party (DMK) is India’s third-largest party in terms of the number of seats it possesses in the lower house of parliament. It is a powerful regional influence in the southern area of India.
The DMK, which is an ally of the Congress party, is also in charge of the southern state of Tamil Nadu, which ranks highly in terms of development indices and has a high literacy rate.
All India Trinamool Congress (TMC)
The Trinamool Congress, which is India’s fourth-largest party in terms of seats in parliament, is currently in power in West Bengal, which is another state in which the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has struggled to consolidate its control.
Close to twenty-five years ago, the TMC emerged as a result of a split that occurred inside the Congress. As the leader of West Bengal state for almost thirteen years, Mamata Banerjee, the founder of the party, is currently a reluctant ally of the Congress party in its struggle against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the elections of 2024. Despite the fact that her party has joined INDIA, they have not been able to reach a consensus on who will run from which seat in the southeast state.
Mahua Moitra, a steadfast critic of Modi who was expelled from parliament last year because to suspicions of bribery, is one of the candidates running for the TMC in the race.
