Voters at a polling booth in Kolkata, West Bengal
The marathon election ends at 6 pm today after six weeks of staggered polling across the country by hundreds of millions of voters. Here's a breakdown with five Qs and As. (
India Votes 2014: Complete Coverage)
Q1) Why did it take so long?Almost 814 million (81.4 crore) adults were eligible to vote, making it the biggest election in history. Organisers say it would have been impossible to operate and guard nearly 930,000 polling stations on a single day, and that is why voting was spread over nine phases.
The first day of voting was on April 7 and the last is today, with election results finally due on Friday. (
Key Dates in India's Record-Breaking Election Marathon)
Q2) What is the likely outcome?Opinion polls and analysts claim voters are fed up with corruption, worried about jobs and price rises, and ready for a change of leadership after 10 years of rule by the Congress party.
While urging voters to reject the BJP and its prime ministerial candidate,
Narendra Modi, the Congress and other parties have alleged that social peace will be threatened by divisive policies designed to fuel communalism if the BJP is elected.
Q3) What do polls say?Narendra Modi is widely forecast to become the prime minister if his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wins the most seats in the 543-member Parliament as projected by opinion polls.
But opinion polls differ on whether the BJP is likely to win the 272 seats needed to govern alone, meaning it may need to forge a coalition with smaller, regional parties to form the government.
Pollsters have been wrong in the past, most notably in 2004 when they failed to forecast a Congress win. (
Also Read: It will be Congress' worst performance, BJP's best, says Modi)
They also failed to predict the stunning results of the Delhi state assembly elections last December when the party of anti-corruption champion
Arvind Kejriwal shocked the BJP and Congress in its electoral debut and seized power.
It's difficult to accurately gauge the opinions of India's mostly rural 1.2 billion people, and its first-past-the-post voting system means minor swings in sentiment can skew the results significantly.
Q4) When will a new government take office?If no party wins a majority, the President will ask the biggest party to put together a coalition with smaller ones. That could lead to days, and possibly weeks, of intense negotiations.
Q5) What would a BJP government be like?Narendra Modi has pledged to focus on reviving the flagging economy if he becomes prime minister under a BJP-led government. (
Also Read: Chidambaram did encounter of Indian economy: Modi)
He is seen as an efficient administrator who has introduced policies that have encouraged development and prosperity in his state of Gujarat that could be reproduced nationally. (
Also Read: The Making of 'Modi Wave')
Critics see him as a polarizing figure who failed to stop anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat in 2002 when he was chief minister. The riots left more than 1,000 people dead, most of them Muslims. A Supreme Court inquiry has said there is no evidence that he was complicit in the violence. (
Also Read: Mamata Banerjee calls Narendra Modi 'architect of riots')