828,804 polling stations were set-up for voters
The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) led by the Indian National Congress party won the 2009 Indian Elections.
The results announced of the largest democratic election in the world on 16th May 2009, showed that Congress won majority of the overall seats won by the UPA, in the Lok Sabha elections, which is the directly elected lower house of the Parliament of India.
Elections take place every five years, which are conducted by the Election Commission of India. For the 2009 elections, approximately 714 million voters participated, producing an increase of 43 million compared to the 2004 elections. This will be now the second term for the Indian National Congress party further to their win in 2004.
To avoid vulnerability to threat and intimidation, geographical barriers and to reduce the distance travelled by voters, 828,804 polling stations were set-up for voters. The voting was done using Electronic Voting Machines (EVM), in the same way as the 2004 elections. In total, 1,368,430 voting machines were made available for use across the country.
The UPA consists of the following parties – Indian National Congress, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Nationalist Congress Party, Nationalist Trinamool Congress, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, Republican Party of India (Athvale), Sikkim Democratic Front and the Indian Union Muslim League.
The Indian National Congress party is led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. And President of the party, Sonia Ghandi, has given her full support for him to be the UPA coalition’s Prime Minister for 2009. After Jawaharlal Nehru, he will be the first Prime Minister of India, to win a re-election, after serving full 5 years of the first term.
Manmohan Singh expressed his thanks and gratitude people of the country for their faith in the Indian Congress Party, and in particular, to Sonia Ghandi and Rahul Gandhi, the General Secretary of the party, for their contributions and campaigns. Wanting Rahul to now join the cabinet, he said, “It’s always my wish to have Rahul Gandhi in my cabinet, but now we’ll have to persuade him to join us.”
The main opposing party BJP has suffered and conceded a major defeat in these elections. They were part of the National Democratic Alliance, which also included parties such as Shiv Sena, Janat Dal (United), Shiromani Akali Dal and Indian National Lok Dal.
The other alliances fighting against these two main alliances were, the Third Front, which included, the Left Front, Bahujan Samaj Party and Biju Janata Dal; the Fourth Front, which consisted of the Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal and Lok Janshakti Party, and some other small fringe parties.
The Indian Congress Party also won in Andhra Pradesh for the Assembly Election. Orissa and Sikkim states were won by other parties.
So, what does this mean for the future of India? Will another term by the Congress led coalition prove to be the right choice during the current econmic climate and threats of terror? Is Manmohan Singh still the right man to be the Prime Minister of India? What will it mean for Non-Resident Indians living abroad and the international community? Does anyone really care about the result because they feel Indian politics is laced with corruption? Give us your views and opinions on this Congress ledwin of the 2009 Indian Elections.
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I think Indian politics have always been under laced with corruption and any party that wins an election, always seems to change their agenda once they are in power anyway.
A lot of people are unhappy by the result. Everyone thought there would be change this time but didn’t happen