Jump to content

Campaigning in the 2014 Indian general election

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Gayatri k31 (talk | contribs) at 18:27, 4 April 2014 (→‎Controversies: Adding/removing wikilink(s)). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Indian general election, 2014
← 2009 7 April - 12 May 2014 2019 →
543 seats in the Lok Sabha
272 seats needed for a majority
 
Leader Rahul Gandhi
(Head of Election Campaign) 		Narendra Modi
(PM candidate) 		Mayawati
(Chair)
Party INC BJP BSP
Alliance UPA NDA
Leader's seat Amethi Varanasi
Last election 119,110,776 votes (28.55%), 206 seats 78,435,538 (18.80%)
116 seats 		25,728,889 votes (6.17%)
21 seats
 
Leader Prakash Karat
(general secretary)
Party CPI(M)
Alliance LF
Last election 22,219,111 votes (5.33%)
16 seats
Incumbent Prime Minister

Manmohan Singh
INC



The Indian general election of 2014 will be held to constitute the 16th Lok Sabha in India. Voting will take place in all 543 parliamentary constituencies of India to elect Members of Parliament in the Lok Sabha.The result of this election will be declared on 16 May, before the 15th Lok Sabha completes its constitutional mandate on 31 May 2014.[1] Since the last general election in 2009, the 2011 Indian anti-corruption movement by Anna Hazare, and other similar moves by Baba Ramdev, have gathered momentum and political interest.[2]Issues such as Inflation, price rise and corruption are supposed to be on high grounds on campaign.

Social media

There has been much commentary about the large role that social media is expected to play in this general election.[3][4] [5] The expenditure on social media by political parties has been estimated to be around Rs. 500 crore.[6] In view of this, the Election Commission announced that they would be keeping tabs on the expenditure on social media by political parties and candidates.[7][8] A Christian group launched a non-partisan popular website called Let's Pray for India where people can adopt a constituency that they will pray for during the election.[9]

Manifestoes

Indian National Congress released its manifesto on 29 Marc 2014. Rights to health, homestead and anti-corruption Bill are the main promised made its manifesto.[10]

Controversies

As in the previous election, the international showpiece Twenty20 cricket event, the Indian Premier League's 2014 event was denied the security it demanded by Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and could, thus, be played outside India, despite being a domestic tournament.[11] After the announcement of the dates for the election, IPL chairman Ranjib Biswal stated that 60-70 percent of the tournament would be held in India.[12]

Just prior to a scheduled election rally of Narendra Modi in Patna in October 2013, eight bombs exploded causing five deaths.[13]

In the run-up to the election the media in India have been criticised for its establishment ties between family owners and political parties. This has caused self-censorship and editorial dismissals at certain media outlets, such as The Hindu for its ties to the INC. [14]

India Today suspended its C-voter opinion poll in late February after a News Express sting operation indicated it had fudged the numbers. [15]

Semi-nude poses by model Meghna Patel in support of Narendra Modi created a stir among BJP. [16] Similarly Tanisha Singh stripped for the support of Rahul Gandhi in the coming Lok Sabha election 2014. [17]

In a speech by INC Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, U.K. criticised the Supreme Court of India and the Election Commission. He said the former's judgement disqualifying convicted lawmakers was not a law but "a judge-made law" and that the Election Commission’s guidelines were effectively saying that "you should do or say nothing that wins you an election. You should try your best to lose elections."[18] He also criticised Modi for being ineffective during the 2002 Gujarat riots. Modi then criticised him for his discussion abroad: "This Indian National Congress should be renamed Institutions Neglecting Congress. They break and demean all constitutional institutions. It is their habit to misuse such institutions."[19] It follows the INC's nomination of candidates with corruption allegations.[20]

Aam Aadmi Party leader Kumar Viswas stirred up a controversy by referring to nurses from Kerala as dark skinned and indirectly implying that they were ugly. The sexist diatribe, part of a show he appeared in in 2008, triggered a chain of reactions from all over the country. Later Arvind Kejriwal apologized for that. [21]

The digital version release of AIADMK leader Jayalalitha starer movie Aayirathil Oruvan during the election 2014 campaign came in trouble after the issue of model code of conduct by the election commission of India. [22] Later Election Commission ordered local authorities in Tamil Nadu’s southern districts to remove film posters showing Chief Minister Jayalalitha and AIADMK founder M G Ramachandran. [23]

In March 2014, a video clip surfaced in which Masood was seen threatening the BJP's Prime-ministerial Candidate, Narendra Modi.[24] On 29 March 2014, he was arrested by Police for his Hate Speech against Narendra Modi.[25]

Electoral

In Birbhum, Joy Banerjee, Bengali actor and BJP candidate from Birbhum was caught on camera distributing money to villagers violating model code of conduct. However Joy Banerjee and BJP president Rahul Sinha denied the charge.[26] Joy Banerjee said he paid a villager for some things he bought.[27]

Inclusion of Pramod Muthalik head of Sri Ram Sene, who was involved in 2009 Mangalore pub attack, in BJP stirred a controversy. As Congress, CPIM and CPI latched on this issue and attack BJP, BJP took a U-turn and cancels Pramod Muthalik's membership.[28] Later Arun Jaitley said that inclusion of Muthalik in BJP was a mistake.[29]

On March 23, Sharad Pawar's comment regarding erasing the ink and voting twice [30] made Election Commission of India issuing show cause notice asking him to explain his remarks.[31] Later in his reply to ECI, he said that he regrets his infamous ‘ink’ remarks.[32]

The election commission told the petroleum ministry not to change prices for natural gas products until the election was over. An increase in prices was due to take effect on 1 April; Kejriwal took credit for the application to defer the change.[33]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Terms of Houses, Election Commission of India". Retrieved 10 June 2013.
  2. ^ "Loksabha election 2014 predictions Survey — Opinion Poll". Seekers Find .in. 28 January 2013. Retrieved 31 July 2013.
  3. ^ "India's social media election battle". BBC.
  4. ^ "General elections 2014: Politicians rush to consultancies for election campaign management". Economic Times.
  5. ^ "Social Media & Lok Sabha Elections" (PDF).
  6. ^ "Google, Facebook, Twitter eye Rs. 500 crore social media election pie". NDTV.
  7. ^ "LS polls: EC to keep vigil on use of social media by candidates". Business Standard.
  8. ^ "Election Commission to step up vigil on social media sites". The Hindu Business Line.
  9. ^ "Let's Pray for India".
  10. ^ http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/congress-manifesto-for-lok-sabha-election-2014/1/351310.html
  11. ^ "Indian Premier League 2014: Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde declines security; matches set to move to South Africa | IPL 2014". Sports.ndtv.com. 21 February 2014. Retrieved 25 February 2014.
  12. ^ "60-70 per cent of IPL 7 to be held in India: Ranjib Biswal". IBN Live. 5 March 2014. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  13. ^ Balwani, Shikhar (28 October 2013). "Indian City of Patna Targeted as Bombings Kill Five". Bloomberg. Retrieved 14 March 2014.
  14. ^ Sevanti Ninan. "'Managing' India's media". Al Jazeera English. Retrieved 25 December 2013.
  15. ^ "India Today suspends C-voter after sting alleged it fixed opinion polls". First Post. First Post. February 26, 2014. Retrieved April 1, 2014.
  16. ^ "BJP red-faced after model Meghna Patel poses semi-nude in support of Narendra Modi". India Today Group. India Today. February 11, 2014. Retrieved April 1, 2014.
  17. ^ "Now model poses nude for 'cutie pie' Rahul Gandhi". India Today Group. India Today. February 13, 2014. Retrieved April 1, 2014.
  18. ^ "Salman Khurshid raises questions about Supreme Court, Election Commission decisions". The Indian Express. Retrieved 14 March 2014.
  19. ^ "Modi says Khurshid insulted Election Commission abroad". Indiatoday.intoday.in. Retrieved 14 March 2014.
  20. ^ "'Tainted' Pawan Kumar Bansal re-nominated by Congress". NDTV.com. Retrieved 14 March 2014.
  21. ^ "Kumar Vishwas' sexist comments on Kerala nurses triggers storm". Deccan Herald. January 20, 2014. Retrieved April 1, 2014.
  22. ^ "With elections around, Jayalalithaa puts up a film show". Hindustan Times. March 13, 2014. Retrieved April 1, 2014.
  23. ^ "EC orders removal of MGR-Jaya posters". Deccan Herald. March 13, 2014. Retrieved April 1, 2014.
  24. ^ "Congress candidate Imran Masood threatens to 'chop' Narendra Modi". Economic Times. Retrieved 2014-03-28.
  25. ^ "Imran Masood arrested for his Hate Speech against Narendra Modi". IANS. news.biharprabha.com. Retrieved 29 March 2014.
  26. ^ "Birbhum BJP candidate caught distributing cash to voters Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/birbhum-bjp-candidate-joy-banerjee-caught-distributing-cash-to-voters/1/349667.html". Headlines Today. India Today. March 15, 2014. Retrieved March 27, 2014. {{cite news}}: External link in |title= (help)
  27. ^ "Bribe blame on BJP candidate". Times of India. Kolkata. March 15, 2014. Retrieved March 27, 2014.
  28. ^ "Following outrage, BJP cancels Pramod Muthalik's membership into the party fold". DNA India. DNA Webdesk. March 23, 2014. Retrieved March 27, 2014.
  29. ^ "Mistake to have inducted Pramod Muthalik into BJP: Jaitley". IANS. Times of India. March 24, 2014. Retrieved March 27, 2014.
  30. ^ "Sharad Pawar asks voters to erase ink, vote twice". DNA India. DNA. March 24, 2014. Retrieved March 27, 2014.
  31. ^ "EC asks Sharad Pawar to explain 'wipe ink..vote twice' remark, defers gas price hike". Express News Service. Indian Express. March 24, 2014. Retrieved March 27, 2014.
  32. ^ "Sharad Pawar regrets his infamous 'ink' remarks". PTI. Live Mint and The Wall Street Journal. March 27, 2014. Retrieved March 27, 2014.
  33. ^ "Election Commission asks Oil Ministry to defer new gas price till poll ends". ET Bureau. The Economic Times. March 25, 2014. Retrieved March 27, 2014.


Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Campaigning_in_the_2014_Indian_general_election&oldid=602758815"