India creates History-30 year old record broken with the highest ever voter turn out

[Abingdonboy]

seems India is heading for hung parliament once again ...although NDA will most likely manage to cobble up the numbers eventually ...

I don't know about that, all the polls I see show the BJP's outright numbers going up and up (projections) just on their own. Who really know though?

 

[Indo-guy]

I don't think most people have to travel far to cast their vote and the infrastructure hasn't changed so much in those remote areas in the last five years that it would jump by 7%. The simple reason is that people are more enthusiastic this time.

In country like India ..there are always more than one factors that are playing simultaneously ..
I think once again the reasons are going to be multiple.

 

[sancho]

A good sign for democracy and means who ever comes to power will truly be what the people want and will thus have a mandate.

True, the question in such elections however is always which of the promises made during pre-elections will become reality and which are forgotten right away. The more compromises you have to take with other coalition partners, the more of what you initially want will be gone too. Will be interesting to see the outcome!

 

[AUSTERLITZ]

We want reduced corruption,more development.Simple .Congress has been dismal failure..and we are fed up of regional parties corruption and oppurtunism.Modi seems like a last hope...let's see if he delivers.If not even he will go.Many think modi wave is because of religion..its not.Its a desperate hope to improve things..we have all raw materials needed for rapid development...just bad policies are holding us back...and this is immensely frustrating.Especially for our growing middle class.

 

[Indo-guy]

Highest ever turnout of 66.38% recorded in this Lok Sabha election - The Times of India


NEW DELHI: The curtains came down on Monday on the marathon Lok Sabha elections with an all-time record high turnout of 66.38 per cent as the final phase of polling covering 41 seats in three states replicated the trend of increased voters' participation seen in the previous 8 rounds.
The overall turnout in all the nine phases of polling this year stood at 66.38 per cent, posting the highest in the history of Lok Sabha elections, surpassing the previous best of 64.01 per cent in 1984 in the wake of the assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
The turnout in 2009 was 58.19 per cent.
The polling today in 18 seats of Uttar Pradesh, 17 in West Bengal and six in Bihar was by and large peaceful barring stray violence in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal which left 13 people injured.
The highest polling on Monday was recorded in West Bengal, where stakes are high for Trinamool Congress hoping to retain all the 14 of the 17 seats decided in the last phase and gain a few more in its final push to position itself as a key player nationally post-poll.
Bihar registered the second highest turnout in the last round with 58 per cent followed by Uttar Pradesh 55.29 percent. The turnout in Varanasi, one of the the most high-profile constituencies where Narendra Modi is pitted against AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal and Congress' Ajai Rai, was pegged at 55.34 per cent. It also witnessed a controversy over Rai displaying his party's poll symbol, following which an FIR was registered against the Congress nominee.
Over nine crore voters were eligible to seal the fate of 606 candidates, including Modi, Kejriwal and SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav (Azamgarh) in the ninth phase of polling.
In Bihar, the turnout today was over 12 per cent higher in these seats than that in the last general elections in 2009 as voters ignored the searing sun and came out in large number in the six constituencies in the state where filmmaker Prakash Jha and former union minister Raghubansh Prasad Singh were among the 90 candidates.
In Uttar Pradesh, the highest turnout was recorded in Maharajganj 54.40 per cent followed by Varanasi and Azamgarh (52.3)
As many as 328 candidates, including Modi and Mulayam Singh Yadav from Azamgarh, are in fray in this last leg of polling.
In 2009 Lok Sabha polls, Samajwadi Party had clinched six of the 18 seats where polling was held on Monday, BSP five, BJP four and Congress had managed three seats. The outcome of today's polling in eastern part of UP was crucial for BJP's hopes of a final push towards its march towards regaining power at the Centre and much would depend on its ability to break the entrenched caste loyalties to SP and BSP which are trying to check the saffron surge.
Polling in West Bengal went off more or less peacefully barring the injury to 13 persons were injured in a clash between CPM) and Trinamool Congress supporters at Haroa in North 24 Parganas district hosting Basirhat Lok Sabha constituency.
Prominent candidates in the state were TMC's Sudip Bandyopadhyay in Kolkata North, Dinesh Trivedi in Barrackpore and Sougata Roy in Dum Dum, besides film stars like Dipak Adhikari (Dev) in Ghatal and Tapas Paul in Krishnagar, Trinamool Yuva President Abhishek Banerjee, nephew of Mamata Banerjee, in Diamond Harbour, magician P C Sorcar (Junior) of BJP in Barasat, WBPCC President Adhir Chowdhury in Berhampore and CPI(M)'s Subhasini Ali from Barrackpore.
Also contesting was former finance minister Asim Dasgupta of the CPM and former union minister Tapan Sikdar of BJP in Dum Dum.

 

[sancho]

We want reduced corruption,more development.Simple .Congress has been dismal failure..and we are fed up of regional parties corruption and oppurtunism.Modi seems like a last hope...let's see if he delivers.If not even he will go.Many think modi wave is because of religion..its not.Its a desperate hope to improve things..we have all raw materials needed for rapid development...just bad policies are holding us back...and this is immensely frustrating.Especially for our growing middle class.

IF anti corruption would be the deciding factor, NDA would not win and everybody would vote for AAP, since they are the only one that actually would want to remove corruption, while UPA and NDA often even have a common stand on this issue. So it's more a shift to another party and giving them a chance to govern and lets see what comes out of that as you said as well and not a real vote for a complete change.
That a country wants to develop more is loigical, even Chinese want their country to develop more, but that doesn't mean that the country would be in a bad shape. The Indian middleclass is actually the biggest beneficiary of the UPA, but the corruption and rape cases of the last years, as well as the sad situation of MMS within his party overshadow everything that was good in the last years. So punishing UPA for these things might have more importance than a real change of direction in Indian politics.
NDA will not be that different, in many fields they will continue UPA ways. In the defence for example with FDI (most likely only more ammount for foreign companies), supporting Indian defence industry, be it government owned or private (stated full support to DRDO, which imo is the wrong way, but also to follow the UPA way of inviting privat Indian players for more involvement).

 

[Robinhood Pandey]

India’s democracy reaches out to lone voter in Gujarat’s Gir forest - The Times of India

AHMEDABAD, He remains one of India's most prized voters.

Mahant Bharatdas Darshandas is the lone voter in the midst of Gujarat's Gir forest, home to the Asiatic lion, for whom an entire election team sets up a polling booth every election — and will do so again on April 30.

Darshandas, in his early 60s, is the lone occupant of a hamlet called Banej in Gir forest. He has been casting his vote for the past elections, including the 2004 and 2009 parliamentary elections and the 2007 and 2012 state elections.

This time too, the Election Commission of India is making all arrangements to ensure that Darshandas, a temple priest, gets to cast his precious single vote. Darshandas lives in Banej Tirthdham, a pilgrimage spot inside the Gir sanctuary and looks after an ancient Shiva temple there.

With the Election Commission mandating that no voter should "ordinarily travel more than 2km to reach the booth", come election time and a polling team travels around 35km to reach the hamlet of Banej inside the Gir forest, located in Junagadh district.

"We are only following the EC guidelines, which has said that no voter should have to travel more than 2km to vote," Junagadh collector Alok Kumar Pandey told IANS on phone.

"Around four-five polling officials will travel to Banej on the night of April 29 carrying with them the polling material, including the Electronic Voting Machine. They will be accompanied by forest guards. On April 30 they will set up the polling booth for the single voter," Pandey said.

Banej falls under Una assembly segment of the Junagadh parliamentary constituency.

According to Pandey, the poll team will travel in a SUV from Una to Banej.

Has the polling team ever encountered lions while travelling to Banej?

"A couple of forest guards always accompany the polling team. Till date there has been no incident of any wild animals attacking the polling team," Lalit Padalia, joint chief electoral officer of Gujarat, told IANS on phone.

Though in the normal course polling hours extend through the day, the election team at Banej would be able to wind up and return the minute Darshandas has pressed the EVM button and his finger is marked with the indelible ink, said Pandey.

Across Junagadh, the Election Commission will set up 2,203 polling stations on April 30, he added.

Gujarat, the home state of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, will have single phase polling for the 26 Lok Sabha seats on April 30.

Prominent among the 334 candidates in fray are Modi, the Gujarat chief minister, senior BJP leader LK Advani and senior Congress leader Madhusudan Mistry.



@sancho @jaunty