2009 Indian general election

Indian general election, 2009

April 16, April 22, April 23, April 30, May 7 and May 13, 2009
All 543 seats in the Lok Sabha
Leader Manmohan Singh Lal Krishna Advani Party INC BJP Leader's seat Assam (Rajya Sabha) Gandhinagar Last election 145 seats, 26.7% 138 seats, 22.2%
Incumbent Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh INC

India is currently holding general elections—the largest democratic election in the world—to the 15th Lok Sabha in five phases on April 16, April 22/April 23, April 30, May 7 and May 13, 2009. The results of the election will be announced in single phase on May 16, 2009.

According to the Indian Constitution, elections in India for the Lok Sabha (the lower house) must be held at least every five years under normal circumstances. With the last elections held in 2004, the term of the 14th Lok Sabha expires on June 1, 2009.

The election is conducted by the Election Commission of India, which estimates an electorate of 714 million voters, an increase of 43 million over the 2004 election. During the budget presented in February 2009, Rs.1,120 Crores (€176 million) was budgeted for election expenses.

Three Indian states Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Sikkim will also conduct elections to their respective legislative assemblies.

Electoral Constituencies

When announcing the elections on March 2, 2009, the Election Commission of India also announced that 499 out of the total 543 Parliamentary constituencies will see elections conducted on the basis of the newly delimited constituencies as determined by the Delimitation Commission set up under the Delimitation Act, 2002. This includes the NCT of Delhi, the Union Territory of Puducherry and all the states except Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Manipur and Nagaland.

Voting infrastructure

Electronic voting machines

The election will be conducted using the Electronic voting machine (EVM), as was done with the 2004 election. There are 1,368,430 voting machines available across the country.

The complete EVM consists mainly of two units – (a) Control Unit and (b) Balloting Unit with cable for connecting it with Control unit. A Balloting Unit caters up to 16 candidates. Four Balloting Units linked together catering in all to 64 candidates can be used with one control unit. The control unit is kept with the Presiding Officer and the Balloting Unit is used by the voter for polling.

The Balloting Unit of EVM is a small box-like device, on top of which each candidate and his/her election symbol is listed like a big ballot paper. Against each candidate's name, a red LED and a blue button is provided. The voter polls his vote by pressing the blue button against the name of his desired candidate.

Polling stations

There are 828,804 polling stations in the country, a 20% increase over the 2004 election. This has been done mainly to avoid vulnerability to threat and intimidation, geographical barriers and to reduce the distance travelled by voters.

The CEC also announced that the polling station in Banej village in the Una segment of Junagadh Lok Sabha constituency, Gujarat has the unique claim to being the only polling station in the country that caters to only one elector – Guru Shree Bharatdasji Bapu, a priest of a Shiva temple in the middle of the Gir Forest.

Electoral rolls

The electoral rolls had to be completely updated because of the delimitation that took effect from 2008. The process of updating the electoral rolls is expected to continue until the last date of filing nominations. 714 million people are eligible to vote in 2009, up 6.4% (43 million) from 2004.

This election will also see almost the entire country (except Assam, Nagaland and Jammu & Kashmir) use photo electoral rolls. This will mean that photos of the electors would be printed on the electoral rolls which is intended to facilitate easy identification and prevent impersonation.

In addition to the photo electoral rolls, the electors will also need to provide separate photo identification. Those electors who have already been issued Electoral's Photo Identification Cards (EPIC) will only be permitted to use the EPIC for identification at the polling station. According to the EC, 82% of the country's electors (except those in Assam) have been issued EPIC.

Polling schedule

The following polling schedule for the 2009 General Elections was announced by the Chief Election Commissioner of India, N. Gopalaswami, on March 2, 2009:

April 16 – Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Jammu & Kashmir, Kerala, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep

April 22 – Manipur

April 23 – Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Goa, Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand

April 30 – Bihar, Gujarat, Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Sikkim, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Daman & Diu

May 7 – Bihar, Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Delhi

May 13 – Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Uttarakhand, Chandigarh, Puducherry

Background

N. Gopalaswami, had stated on December 28, 2008, that the elections were likely to be held between April and May 2009. He attributed this schedule to the examination period from February to March, making polling places unavailable.

On January 31, 2009, fractures within the Election Commission came to the fore when N. Gopalaswami recommended to the President of India Pratibha Devisingh Patil that Election Commissioner Navin Chawla be sacked for behaving in a partisan manner. This recommendation in itself was controversial, as it was unclear if the Chief Election Commissioner has the legal and constitutional right to provide such a unilateral recommendation. As expected, Chawla refused to resign as he was expected to take over the post of Chief Election Commissioner a few months later.

The above controversy also resulted in speculation that the Election Commission was unable to agree on the polling dates, with the incumbent CEC Gopalaswami preferring that at least one phase of elections be held before his retirement on April 20, 2009. Navin Chawla, on the other hand, wanted the election to only start after Gopalaswami retired.

Eventually, on March 1, 2009, President Patil, as was widely expected, rejected Gopalaswami's recommendation to sack Chawla after the Government advised her to do so.

Soon after the above announcement by President Patil, the Election Commissioners put aside their differences and got together on March 2, 2009 to announce the details of the general election.

Subsequently, the President's House announced on March 4, 2009 that the incumbent CEC N. Gopalaswami would retire as scheduled on April 20, 2009 and Navin Chawla would take over as CEC starting April 21, 2009. For the first time in the history of Indian politics, two different people will oversee different phases of the same election.

Detailed polling schedule for each Phase

Detailed Schedule for 2009 General Elections

Poll Event	Phases
	Phase 1	Phase 2		Phase 3			Phase 4	Phase 5
		Phase 2A	Phase 2B	Phase 3A	Phase 3B	Phase 3C		Phase 5A	Phase 5B
Announcement & Issues of Press Notes	Mon, 02 Mar
Issue of Notification	Mon, 23 Mar	Sat, 28 Mar		Thu, 02 Apr			Sat, 11 Apr	Fri, 17 Apr
Last Date for filing Nominations	Mon, 30 Mar	Sat, 04 Apr		Thu, 09 Apr			Sat, 18 Apr	Fri, 24 Apr
Scrutiny of Nominations	Tue, 31 Mar	Mon, 06 Apr		Sat, 11 Apr	Fri, 10 Apr		Mon, 20 Apr	Sat, 25 Apr
Last Date for Withdrawal of Candidature	Thu, 02 Apr	Wed, 08 Apr		Mon, 13 Apr	Wed, 15 Apr	Mon, 13 Apr	Wed, 22 Apr	Mon, 27 Apr	Tue, 28 Apr
Date of Poll	Thu, 16 Apr	Wed, 22 Apr	Thu, 23 Apr	Thu, 30 Apr			Thu, 07 May	Wed, 13 May
Counting of Votes	Sat, 16 May
Date before which election shall be Completed	Thu, 28 May
Number of States & UTs	17	1	12	6	1	4	8	8	1
Number of Parliamentary Constituencies	124	1	140	77	1	29	85	72	14
Source:

Polling schedule for each state/UT

Polling schedule for each State/UT in 2009 General Elections

States/UTs	Constituencies	Phases	Phase 1		Phase 2	Phase 3	Phase 4	Phase 5
			16 Apr	Turnout	22,23 Apr	30 Apr	07 May	13 May
Andaman & Nicobar Islands	1	1	1	62%
Andhra Pradesh	42	2	22	69%	20
Arunachal Pradesh	2	1	2	62%
Assam	14	2	3	62%	11
Bihar	40	4	13	46%	13	11	3
Chandigarh	1	1		-				1
Chhattisgarh	11	1	11	50%
Dadra & Nagar Haveli	1	1		-		1
Daman & Diu	1	1		-		1
Delhi	7	1		-			7
Goa	2	1		-	2
Gujarat	26	1		-		26
Haryana	10	1		-			10
Himachal Pradesh	4	1		-				4
Jammu & Kashmir	6	5	1	48%	1	1	1	2
Jharkhand	14	2	6	50%	8
Karnataka	28	2		-	17	11
Kerala	20	1	20	69%
Lakshadweep	1	1	1	86%
Madhya Pradesh	29	2		-	13	16
Maharashtra	48	3	13	54%	25	10
Manipur	2	2	1	66%	1
Meghalaya	2	1	2	66%
Mizoram	1	1	1	52%
Nagaland	1	1	1	84%
Orissa	21	2	10	53%	11
Puducherry	1	1		-				1
Punjab	13	2		-			4	9
Rajasthan	25	1		-			25
Sikkim	1	1		-		1
Tamil Nadu	39	1		-				39
Tripura	2	1		-	2
Uttar Pradesh	80	5	16	50%	17	15	18	14
Uttarakhand	5	1		-				5
West Bengal	42	3		-		14	17	11
Total Constituencies	543		124	60%	141	107	85	86
Total States/UTs polling on this day			17		13	11	8	9
				States/UTs		Constituencies
Number of States & UTs polling in single phase				22		164
Number of States & UTs polling in two phases				8		163
Number of States & UTs polling in three phases				2		90
Number of States & UTs polling in four phases				1		40
Number of States & UTs polling in five phases				2		86
Total				35		543
Source:

Election Day

Phase 1 – April 16, 2009

The first phase of the 2009 election took place on Thursday, April 16 with elections in 124 constituencies across 15 states and 2 union territories. There were incidents of violence in a few places in Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand and Maharashtra and between 17 to 19 people were killed in Naxal attacks. The dead included five poll officials and 10 security personnel, whose families received a compensation of Rs 10 lakh. Naxals set fire to voting machines, attacked voters, security personnel and polling workers, and destroyed vehicles. According to one news source, "It was apparent that the Naxals had clearly planned to disrupt the polls."

Despite these incidents, the ECI expressed satisfaction about the conduct of the polls due to peaceful polling in many other parts of the country. Initial reports from the ECI place the voter turnout for this phase at approximately 60 percent. This phase of the election was held in 1.85 lakh (185,000) polling stations, serving an electorate of over 14.31 crore (143,100,000) deciding the fate of 1,715 candidates.

The ECI ordered repoll in 46 polling booths across 7 of the states where polling took place in the first phase. These include 29 polling booths in Andhra Pradesh, 5 each in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, 3 in Nagaland, 2 in Kerala and 1 each in Jammu & Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh. The repoll in all these polling booths were held on April 18, 2009.

One of the positive stories emerging from this phase of election was from Kandhamal district, where refugees of the 2008 Kandhamal riots came out in huge numbers to exercise their franchise. It is estimated that there was a turnout of 90% amongst Kandhamal refugees and 50% across the entire district. The administration had earlier identified large parts of the area as naxal affected and vulnerable. Hence, the administration had deployed extra security in the area and the ECI has arranged for special transport to shuttle the refugees from the refugee camps to the polling booths. Both of these actions helped achieve the high turnout.

Prime ministerial candidates

Each of the party coalitions has indicated their choice for prime minister, should they win a majority to form a government.

United Progressive Alliance

Following the August 2008 confidence vote victory for the current government, a statement by Indian National Congress President Sonia Gandhi has caused speculation that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would be projected as the Prime Ministerial candidate in the next elections. Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar has indicated that he is also a possible Prime Ministerial candidate post elections. On January 24, 2009, Manmohan Singh underwent cardiac bypass surgery at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. Following the surgery, speculation of alternate PM candidates arose both within the Congress and amongst coalition partners. In an attempt to quell such speculations, Sonia Gandhi on February 6, 2009, wrote in the Congress party magazine Sandesh that Manmohan Singh is the UPA coalition's Prime Ministerial candidate for the 2009 elections.

National Democratic Alliance

The main opposition, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its coalition partners in the National Democratic Alliance, announced on December 11, 2007 that their candidate for prime minister would be BJP party leader Lal Krishna Advani, the Leader of the Opposition. On January 23, 2008, leaders from BJP and other NDA parties convened to officially elect him their candidate. No other party or alliance has announced a prime ministerial candidate.

Third Front

A group of regional parties including Communist parties have formed a third front to counter the BJP-led and Congress-led alliances. The members are the Left Front and the United National Progressive Alliance. However the CPI (M) has openly said that they are not against bargaining for alliance with Congress if they get enough number of seats after the election . Once again, the media has speculated that Mayawati, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, could potentially be projected as the front's Prime Ministerial candidate, but no official move has taken place yet. If Mayawati's party can win enough seats, she has openly stated that she would be willing to take the support of the national parties to become Prime Minister. No other candidate has publicly expressed interest in becoming Prime Minister thus far.

Campaigning

United Progressive Alliance

The Congress party has bought the rights for the Oscar winning soundtrack Jai Ho from the movie Slumdog Millionaire and this song will be used as the official campaign tune by the party. The song title Jai Ho translates to Let there be victory, and the Congress hopes that this popular song will galvanise the masses during the almost one month long election season.

On March 24, 2009, Congress President Sonia Gandhi released the party's manifesto for the 2009 election. The party's slogan for the election is Aam Admi Ke Badhte Kadam, Har Kadam Par Bharat Buland which roughly translates to The common man moves forward, And with his every step India prospers. The manifesto highlights all the achievements of the UPA Government over the last 5 years in power and identifies improving various policies to favour more rural & under-privileged sections of the Indian society. The full text of the manifesto is available at the Congress website.

National Democratic Alliance

To counter the Congress' selection of Jai Ho as their official anthem, the BJP coined the phrase Kushal Neta, Nirnayak Sarkaar which translates to Able leader, decisive government. The BJP hope to benefit from the fact that they have been consistently projecting one single leader, Advani, as the party's Prime Ministerial candidate for more than 1 year, while the Congress appears to have dual power centres (party President Sonia Gandhi and incumbent Prime Minister Manmohan Singh). The BJP intends to use Advani's name & image as the main focus in these elections.

On April 3, 2009, BJP released its election manifesto in New Delhi. The party is taking on the incumbent UPA Government on the 3 fronts of Good Governance, Development and Security. The manifesto highlights all the different NDA policies that the UPA reversed over the last 5 years. The manifesto lays a lot of importance on requiring strong, POTA-like anti-terrorism laws and vows to make India a safer place if the BJP is elected. The full text of the manifesto is available at the BJP website.

Communist Party of India (Marxist)

The CPI(M) has created a campaign website hosting its campaign information to attract sympathisers among the netizen public to vote for the party.

Campaign controversies

Indian National Congress

• The Election Commission took exception to a full page advertisement on the 2010 Commonwealth Games taken out in major Delhi newspapers. The advertisement listed the infrastructural facilities that have come up in preparation for the 2010 event – including 24 flyovers, 75 aerobridge airport, 1,285 km of better roads, 5,000 low-floor buses, 80 new metro destinations, 11 world-class sports venues and thousands of job opportunities. The EC served notice to the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, the Cabinet Secretary and the Chief Secretary of Delhi, stating that the advertisement is a clear violation of the model code of conduct since it enumerates the achievements of the UPA Government. The EC has also asked the violators to pay from their own pockets.
• Congress MP and Bollywood actor Govinda is being investigated by the Mumbai Suburban District Collector for giving money to supporters outside his Mumbai house on March 12, 2009.
• Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy is being investigated for addressing an election meeting within a Government school's premises during a Class 10 public examination in the school. His son-in-law Anil Kumar, an evangelist, has a case filed against him for distributing religious pamphlets promoting Government programs in a church. Three others were arrested in the case and Anil Kumar is expected to be arrested as well.
• Two Congress Lok Sabha candidates from Pilibhit and Shrawasti constituencies from Uttar Pradesh booked for violating the model code of conduct, the Congress nominee from Pilibhit B.M. Singh was registered for using as many as 98 four-wheelers in his procession, against the three authorized by the district authorities,where as the party’s nominee from Shrawasti V.K. Pandey was booked for conducting a road show Tuesday without taking permission from the district authorities

Janata Dal (United)

• JD(U) leader Jeetan Ram Manjhi was booked by EC on March 9, 2009 for violating the model code of conduct which took effect from the day the election was announced by the EC. Manjhi attended an election meeting in Nalanda district using the official car made available to him for his position as the Social Welfare Minister in the Government of Bihar.

Bharatiya Janata Party

• An FIR was filed against BJP MP & spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy for holding a press conference at circuit house in Chapra on March 4, 2009 in violation of the model of conduct.
• The EC directed the District Magistrate of Pilibhit to lodge a criminal case against the BJP's candidate Varun Gandhi for his inflammatory speech against non-Hindus made on March 7, 2009. This decision was taken after the EC had earlier issued a notice to Varun Gandhi and the BJP. After reviewing the incident, the EC found Varun Gandhi guilty of violating the model code of conduct by creating feeling of enmity and hatred between different communities. However, since Varun has not been convicted by a court of law, the EC can not bar him from contesting the election. Instead, they have recommended to his party, the BJP, to drop him from their list of candidates. The BJP have since come out in support of Varun and have refused to drop Varun as a candidate, saying that the EC has no right to provide such a recommendation. Subsequently, Varun Gandhi was arrested and booked under India's strict National Security Act on charges of inciting communal tensions. This charge could see him kept under detention for up to one year.
• Senior BJP leader and former Finance Minister of India Jaswant Singh was caught on tape on March 31, 2009 distributing money during an election meeting in Gajaria village in Barmer. Singh's son Manvendra Singh is contesting the election on a BJP ticket from Barmer Lok Sabha constituency. The District Collector of Barmer collected and presented the facts of the incident to the EC. Jaswant Singh has denied the charges of violating the model code of conduct, instead saying that it was the party tradition to help the poor and needy.
• Former BJP Lok Sabha MP Ananth Kumar Hegde became the second BJP leader of this election to be reported for making a hate speech against a particular community. During an election rally at Karwar. Kumar allegedly threatened to prevent Muslims from celebrating religious festivals after cautioning the people against activities of Islamist terror groups. Karnataka's Chief Electoral Officer has sent a report on this incident along with a CD of Kumar's speech to the CEC.

Rashtriya Janata Dal

• RJD's Lok Sabha MP, Pappu, and his wife have been charged with violating the model code of conduct for attending public receptions under Sadar, Khat and Kasba police stations without seeking prior permission from competent authorities.
• An FIR was filed against RJD MP Ramkripal Yadav, former RJD MLA Dharmendra Kumar and Masaurhi block RJD president Chandrashekhar Prasad Singh for holding a public meeting at Kharoch without permission.

Samajwadi Party

• SP's chief Mulayam Singh Yadav was issued a notice on March 12, 2009 by the EC for allegedly bribing voters during an election rally on March 11 in his native village of Safai in Etawah Lok Sabha constituency. The party workers were seen distributing Rs. 100 notes to all those who attended the rally. The party claims that the money was being given away as a gift to the people of the village and that the gathering was to celebrate the festival of Holi and was not a political rally. On March 31, 2009, the EC decided not to proceed on this case and no action will be taken against either Mulayam Singh Yadav or the party.
• The EC on March 30, 2009 also served notice to Mulayam Singh Yadav for his alleged threats against Ministhy Dileep, the District Magistrate of Mainpuri. Mulayam is expected to contest the election from Mainpuri Lok Sabha constituency.

Political parties go online

Indian politicians for the first time are using the World Wide Web extensively for reaching out to the news 40 million odd voters that will be casting their votes for the first time. After being impressed by the success of Barack Obama in the United States elections, most of the major parties in India are taking on to the Net in the hope of influencing the new voters.

Recently, in an article in Dataquest Magazine, Shashwat DC had stated that, among all the parties, BJP was the most advanced in terms of running a campaign on the Web.

In this Cyber race, without an iota of doubt it is the saffron party that has taken a lead over its competitors. In the days gone by, there have been numerous announcements that have emanated from the IT Cell headquarters in Delhi, like the revamping of its party website (BJP.org) and the launch of a blog by the prime ministerial candidate LK Advani (blogs.lkadvani.in). Going by the figures, septuagenarian Advani would be the most tech-active leader right now in India, posting blogs, chatting online, videos, images, and the works. Not only that there is a user group, named Friends of the BJP, that religiously updates videos and blogs on different websites like Youtube and Orkut. According to BJP, its website www.lkadvani.com which was launched on Nov 8, 2008 is getting 20 thousand unique hits every day. The site boasts of some 150 archives, 300 photos, and some 700 pages of textual content.

[1]

But it is not the first time that the various political parties in India are using the Web as a tool for reaching out, both the Congress and the BJP have had online presence for a long time. For instance, years back Congress Leader Jagdish Tytler had launched an online forum while for BJP it was their tech savvy leader Pramod Mahajan. In fact, BJP had launched its own website and formed an IT cell way back in 1997. The rest, like the Communist Party of India (CPI), Telugu Desam party, Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and the rest, all have a web presence.

Yet, there are still doubts on whether the online strategy will really translate into gains on the ground in the same article, Shashwat DC, opines that:

The big question that seems to be on everyone’s mind right now is, whether the Obama template could be replicated out here in India. There are a lot of advantages that the parties can draw from the Internet, for instance, the election code of conduct is still not clear on how the promotion on Internet can be effected. For instance, all campaigning in other mediums has to end 24 hours before the polling, but candidates can still reach out to their communities through online websites even with the last minute. This advantage can be exploited by the parties till there is an explicit direction given by the Election Commission.

[2]

Given the low level of Internet penetration in India, which only has 81 million users in a country of over 1 billion, the Internet penetration is somewhere around 7.1% as per ITU [3]. There is still much doubt as to how a Obama type campaign can work in India. Yet, the lessons learned in 2009 will surely be help to parties in the later elections.

Coalition members

The 2009 general election will see three main national pre-poll alliances take on each other. Given the volatile nature of coalition politics in India, the alliances may change over time – before and after the polls.

United Progressive Alliance

The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) was formed after the 2004 general election to bring together parties that either allied with the Congress in various states, or were willing to support a Congress-led national Government. Though the UPA never enjoyed a clear majority on its own, it has managed to complete its five-year term from 2004 to 2009 by securing outside support from the Left Front, Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party at different times during this tenure.

Constituents

The UPA comprises the following constituent parties: Indian National Congress, Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Nationalist Congress Party, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, Lok Janshakti Party, Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (rebel faction), Trinamool Congress, Jammu & Kashmir National Conference, Indian Union Muslim League, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, Republican Party of India (Athvale), Sikkim Democratic Front among others.

National Democratic Alliance

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was the first large national coalition formed by one national party supported by various regional parties. It was formed after the 1998 general election and the NDA formed the Government led by BJP's Atal Bihari Vajpayee. However, the Government collapsed a few months later. The NDA returned to power after the 1999 general election and this time the Vajpayee-led Government completed its full term from 1999 to 2004.

Constituents

The NDA comprises the following constituent parties: Bhartiya Janata Party, Shiv Sena, Janata Dal (United), Shiromani Akali Dal, Rashtriya Lok Dal, Asom Gana Parishad, Indian National Lok Dal, Mizo National Front amongst others.

Third Front

Parties opposed to both the Congress and the BJP have often floated the idea of forming a Third Front alliance. A Third Front alliance known as the United Front had formed the Government between 1996 and 1998 before elections were held again. The current Third Front is an alliance between the communist parties of the Left Front and the regional parties of the United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA). The Third Front alliance for the 2009 election was officially announced by Janata Dal (Secular)'s H. D. Deve Gowda on March 2, 2009.

Constituents

The Third Front comprises the following constituent parties: Communist Party of India (Marxist), Biju Janata Dal, Communist Party of India, Telugu Desam Party, Telangana Rashtra Samithi, Janata Dal (Secular), Revolutionary Socialist Party, All India Forward Bloc, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Pattali Makkal Katchi among others.

Others

Some parties have either not yet announced the coalition they support or have decided to fight the election on their own. This list is likely to change as we near election dates. Parties that remain un-allied even after the election, could play the role of king-maker in determining who will form the next Government. Many of these parties are regional parties who have limited presence outside their home states.

These include Bahujan Samaj Party, Nagaland People's Front, National Loktantrik Party, Kerala Congress, Jammu & Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party, Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam, Praja Rajyam among others.

Opinion polling

Most opinion polls conducted by major agencies till date are giving the UPA an edge over the NDA, but none are predicting either to come close to the requisite figure for a majority, while reckoning other regional parties could play an important role by winning a substantial number of seats. In results where the "Fourth Front" is indicated, the SP, RJD and LJP are not being counted in the UPA figure.

Agency	Dates	Results
CNN-IBN-CSDS	8 Jan to 15/09	UPA 215–235, NDA 165–185, Others 125–155
Star–Nielsen	5 Mar to 17 Mar 2009	UPA 257 (Congress 144), NDA 184 (BJP 137), Others 96
Star–Nielsen	26 Mar – 3 Apr 2009	UPA 203 (Congress 155), NDA 191 (BJP 147), Third Front 104, Fourth Front 39
Outlook India–The Week	March – April 2009	UPA 234 (Congress 144), NDA 186 (BJP 140), Third Front 112
Times of India	March 2009	UPA 201 (Congress 146), NDA 195 (BJP 138), Others 147

References

• Official Election Website of Mysore

External links

• Official website of the Election Commission of India
• News, Videos, Quotes, Cartoons Related to 2009 General Elections in India
• Official website of the Delimitation Commission of India
• General Elections 2009 Coverage
• Lok Sabha Elections 2009, Schedule, Debates, Special Coverage
• Contents of affidavits of candidates in fray for Lok Sabha Elections 2009
• Special coverage of Lok Sabha Elections 2009
• India Election 2009 News
• Results, facts and latest news about 2009 Indian Elections
• Mashedge Web Book Shelf:India Election 2009