General election in India , 2009

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.

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

Compared to last decade and couple of years back , there is a lot of changes in terms of Election campaign, disclosure of the assets of the person contesting the election, eduacted class contesting election, awareness among people has increased..

probable persons who can become Prime minister are Manmohan Singh of Congress, L.K.Advani of BJP, Mayawati of BSP...

Although there is couple of violence incidents here and there overall a peacefull election so far thanks to People, Election commission of india, Security, the government .....

Now a days after the introduction of Electronic Voting machines there is almost no chance of fake voting which is a very good change

One more interesting this is although people have enrolled their name & altough many of them had voiter id card could not vote in first two phases as their name is not appearing in the list may be due to lack of planning or discrepency..

When I went for voting i had to search my name for more than 30 minutes before voting..Finally got relieved when i saw my name & voted with id proof(we can vote even if have dont have Election id card \with ID
Proof such as PAN card, Driving licence, Bank passbook with photo card, ID card s given by college.....around 20 such ids so that we can use our power to elect our own leaders.

Nice to know software engineers, educated class people started contesting elections which is a good sign and from whom we can expect good governement and less corruption..

Hope India will see much more progress in coming years..