India´s Election
Joe Fleishman
April 17, 2009
India´s first leg of election is over with significant numbers of violence. In spite of the threat of Maoist rebels millions of voter have casted their ballot Thursday. Violence has been reported in many places. Voters in four states encounter land mines and gunfire at polling sites.
Enthusiastic voters have gathered in the poling station from the early morning. Presence of huge number of women was also very noticeable. Many women have casted their vote along with their children in lap.
Moist rebels have attacked in many remote areas. BBC has reported that, this attack on the voters and poling stations have caused trouble in vote casting.
It will take several weeks to complete the whole election procedure. Election will continue to the world largest democracy till May 13. Poling will take place on April 23, 30 May 7 and 13.
About 714 million people are eligible to vote in India's month-long rolling election. 24% of the total voters are less the 35 years old. 48% are women.
There are about 1055 political parties are participating in this election. But the two main rivals are Congress led United Progressive Alliance or UPA and opposition BJP led National Democratic Alliance NDA. If Congress led UPA wins the election then may be Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh will continue his office. But if BJP win the election L.K. Advani may be the next Indian Prime Minister.
Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh is in his office since the year 2004. 78 years old Dr. Singh is not in good health recently. After third round surgery in his heart he is not in good shape, although Congress is still giving their full support to Dr. Singh. Singh´s arch rival is 81 years old Lalchand Kishenchand Advani is a hardcore Hindu activist who led the destruction of Babri Mosque in 1992 which caused widespread unrest in the whole subcontinent.
This fanatic image of L.K. Advani was not welcomed by many voters. So he tried to recover his image in many ways. In 2005 he has visited Pakistan to better his image which annoyed many extreme Hindu´s.
Among the other probable candidate, widow of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi Mrs. Sonia Gandhi is one of the most popular names. Born in Italy, Sonia came to the politics in 1998. She became a role model while she refused the offer of the post of Prime Minister. Right after that mouth of those who called her a foreigner were almost stopped forever.
Sonia and Rajiv couple has a son Rahul who is considered as future Prime Minister of India. May be it is too early for 39 years old Rahul –but he is already preparing him-self for the future Prime Minister of the country.
Popular film stars are often seen in the India´s politics. From the Mumbai´s legendary Amitabh Bachchan, Rajesh Khanna, Vinod Khanna, Govinda to many other local starts have tried to mesmerized people with their charismatic performance. But unfortunately their presence in politics was so insignificant that most of them had to say good bye within a few years.
Enthusiastic voters have gathered in the poling station from the early morning. Presence of huge number of women was also very noticeable. Many women have casted their vote along with their children in lap.
Moist rebels have attacked in many remote areas. BBC has reported that, this attack on the voters and poling stations have caused trouble in vote casting.
It will take several weeks to complete the whole election procedure. Election will continue to the world largest democracy till May 13. Poling will take place on April 23, 30 May 7 and 13.
About 714 million people are eligible to vote in India's month-long rolling election. 24% of the total voters are less the 35 years old. 48% are women.
There are about 1055 political parties are participating in this election. But the two main rivals are Congress led United Progressive Alliance or UPA and opposition BJP led National Democratic Alliance NDA. If Congress led UPA wins the election then may be Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh will continue his office. But if BJP win the election L.K. Advani may be the next Indian Prime Minister.
Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh is in his office since the year 2004. 78 years old Dr. Singh is not in good health recently. After third round surgery in his heart he is not in good shape, although Congress is still giving their full support to Dr. Singh. Singh´s arch rival is 81 years old Lalchand Kishenchand Advani is a hardcore Hindu activist who led the destruction of Babri Mosque in 1992 which caused widespread unrest in the whole subcontinent.
This fanatic image of L.K. Advani was not welcomed by many voters. So he tried to recover his image in many ways. In 2005 he has visited Pakistan to better his image which annoyed many extreme Hindu´s.
Among the other probable candidate, widow of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi Mrs. Sonia Gandhi is one of the most popular names. Born in Italy, Sonia came to the politics in 1998. She became a role model while she refused the offer of the post of Prime Minister. Right after that mouth of those who called her a foreigner were almost stopped forever.
Sonia and Rajiv couple has a son Rahul who is considered as future Prime Minister of India. May be it is too early for 39 years old Rahul –but he is already preparing him-self for the future Prime Minister of the country.
Popular film stars are often seen in the India´s politics. From the Mumbai´s legendary Amitabh Bachchan, Rajesh Khanna, Vinod Khanna, Govinda to many other local starts have tried to mesmerized people with their charismatic performance. But unfortunately their presence in politics was so insignificant that most of them had to say good bye within a few years.