India gears up for it's 15th general elections

To be held within the coming 10 to 12 weeks, the 15th general elections for the lower house of Indian Parliament (Lok Sabha or People's House) are expected to involve about 700 million voters and 800,000 polling stations. The fact that about 100 million voters have been added to India's electorate in the past decade brings it a much younger profile. Put together with rising awareness and consumption levels, this is expected to change the tune and tenor of political participation this time around. Experts have been talking of class finally replacing caste calculations in Indian politics.

In terms of space and time, the conduct of these elections will be spread over two to three weeks of polling across India's widely varying geographic and climatic zones, from snow-capped mountains, tropical regions and deserts to tiny or sparsely populated islands in the Indian Ocean. More than that, this will involve about 10 weeks of very colorful and high-pitch electioneering which involves dance and music to spice speeches by politicians of all hues and also film actors, sportspersons and other celebrities contesting elections. Some constituencies will have hundreds of candidates contesting for a single seat while some candidates will contest multiple seats.

India's multi-party elections will include about 45 provincial and seven nationally recognized parties with official symbols of all kinds: an elephant, lotus, bicycle, mango, spectacles, arrow, hand pump, cart, torch, star, rising sun and lion.