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Journalism of Courage
In the 14th General Election, there are 1 million electronic voting machines throughout the country. Yet ballot boxes will still be transported by camel or by elephant back to remote voters. The 14th General Election will be staggered into five rounds. 675 million will vote.
The electorate has quadrupled since 1952. The number of polling stations has trebled to 7 lakh. 3.5 million election personnel will be deployed. 2 million security personnel. And the total cost will be more than Rs 1,200 crore. Imagine that!
The first General Election of 1952 was described as a ‘‘gigantic undertaking’’ by the BBC. 176 candidates were eligible to vote, of whom only 15 per cent could read or write. 4,500 seats were up for grabs: 500 for Parliament and the rest for the provincial assemblies. 2.24 lakh polling booths had to be constructed and equipped with 2 million steel ballot boxes. 8,200 tonnes of steel were required for these boxes and 16,500 clerks were appointed on contracts for typing the electoral rolls, for which 3.8 lakh reams of paper were required. There were 56,000 presiding officers, 2.8 lakh ‘‘lesser staff’’ and 2.24 lakh policemen.
General Elections have remained consistently massive. When the voting age was lowered from 18 to 21 in 1989, 36 million were added to the electorate. Through the ’50s and ’60s, Congress dominated. Then in the fateful elections of 1967, the Congress suffered a serious setback and retained majority but the margin dropped from 228 to 48. The Jan Sangh emerged as the major opposition party and the Congress lost its majority in states, with the Swatantra Party emerging in Andhra, Gujarat and others and the Communists in Kerala and West Bengal.
1977 saw the first rout of the Congress with the Janata Party forming the government. However in 1984, the Congress once again rode to overwhelming power after the assasination of Indira Gandhi. A hung Parliament in 1989, a series of non-Congress governments, followed by the return of the Congress in 1991, in a government headed by P V Narasimha Rao. In this General Election, the BJP emerged stronger, with 120 seats after the Rath Yatra of 1990.
In the 1996 General Election, the Congress slumped to its worst ever defeat, winning only 140 seats in a badly fragmented Parliament. Mid-term elections in 1998 resulted in another fragmented Parliament, with the BJP getting 161 seats. The 13-month Vajpayee government fell after Jayalalithaa withdrew support.
In the General Election of 1999, the BJP and its allies came to power.
Now, the 14th General Election…now, the choice…
