Indian Elections 2014

Written off even as speculation was rife of him being the Congress’s prime ministerial candidate, Rahul Gandhi, patriarch of India’s most influential party in the political arena, and its chief election campaigner was born on June 19, 1970.

He is the son of assassinated former premier Rajiv Gandhi and his Italian-born widowed wife Sonia Gandhi. The latter is currently the president of the Congress and India’s most powerful female politician.

His family party has governed most of India’s post-partition history with Rahul’s father, grand-mother and great-grand-father having served as prime ministers.

Conversely, Rahul is widely regarded as a reluctant leader whose resistance to become politically visible has not gone down well with party members.

Although considered to have a wider appeal among the youth, Gandhi has also largely avoided the media. It’s a case of dynastic politics that catapulted the 43-year-old into limelight rather than perhaps any personal merits.

He was tutored at some of the best schools in India before he read economics at prestigious universities in US and UK under a pseudonym — his real identity was kept private, save for a select few who were aware of it, including security agencies and the university administration.

After completing his graduation, he worked in business management in London before returning to work in Mumbai in 2002.

He surprised many when he decided to formally enter politics before the 2004 polls in India. Rahul won the family constituency seat of Amethi in northern Uttar Pradesh state and became a lawmaker. He took over from his mother who had retained the constituency, following his father’s death.

Since his entry into the Indian parliament, Rahul has been viewed upon with hesitation by voters and analysts. It is believed that he lacks the mettle needed for politics, which is essentially murky, in the world’s biggest democracy.

Rahul was anointed the Congress’s secretary general in Sept 2007 while his mother remained the party’s president. The appointment made by Sonia was considered to cement his position as the likely heir-apparent to the powerful Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty.

Last year, in January, Gandhi was appointed the Congress party’s vice president in Jaipur.

At the time, he told his supporters that although power was poison, he was accepting the position for the poor.

“Congress party is now my life, people of India are my life. I will fight for the people of India and for this party. I will fight with everything that I have,” he had said.

Pitted against the Congress in the 2014 general election is the Gujarat chief minister and Hindu hardliner Narendra Modi who is the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) prime ministerial candidate.

At a time when the Congress government, led by Manmohan Singh, is wrecked by several corruption scandals, soaring prices and a declining economy, the party’s win against the shrewd businessman Modi who has been credited for his strong economic policies in Gujarat is highly unlikely. It hasn’t helped that Sonia Gandhi stalled expectations of Rahul being the Congress’s de facto prime ministerial candidate in Jan 2014. Any hopes pinned on the 43-year-old to engineer an implausible win for the Congress have, in fact, given way to ambiguity.

— Research and text by Fatema Imani

Narendra Modi is the prime ministerial candidate of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. He is experienced in governance and has served four times as the chief minister of India’s Gujarat state.

During his tenure as chief minister, Gujarat has seen considerable socio-economic progress and infrastructure development, as a result of which the BJP has decided to field him as the party’s candidate for the country’s top post. Modi, who has also gained much popular support on account of his performance in Gujarat, is expected to lead the NDA to victory in the elections.

Modi was born in Vadsana in Gujarat, where he also received his early education. Later, he went on to obtain a Masters degree in Political Science from Gujarat University.

He began his political career by participating as a student worker in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and underwent rigorous training which enabled him to take up party offices. Soon, he moved on to the BJP where he continued to prove himself as a competent organiser.

Modi went on to become the general secretary of the Gujarat chapter of the BJP in 1988, and was an important figure during the election campaigns of 1995 and 1998. He was eventually appointed as the party secretary at the national level in 1998 and held that position until Oct 2001 when he was elected as the chief minister of Gujarat.

His first term as chief minister was marred by the 2002 Gujarat riots. The riots began after 59 people on a train were burned to death near Godhra. Those killed were said to be mostly Hindu pilgrims and the perpetrators Muslims. Soon after the incident, communal violence ripped through the state resulting in hundreds of deaths. The death toll has been estimated around 1,000, whereas some estimates say nearly 2,000 people were killed. Following the riots, Modi and his government was criticised by human rights organisations, the media and opposition parties for not making sufficient efforts to curb the violence. The call to find liability reached a point where India’s Supreme Court appointed a special investigation team to probe into the riots and examine the extent to which the Modi government was responsible for the violence. That team submitted a report to the court in 2010 which it stated that no evidence was found against Modi. However, three years later, in 2013, the team was accused of suppressing evidence of Modi’s involvement in the violence.

At the time of the riots, pressure from allies and opposition parties mounted on Modi and the BJP, calling for his resignation. However, the subsequent elections returned the party to power in Gujarat. During his second term as chief minister, Modi focused on the economic development of the state, making it an attractive avenue for investors.

Having achieved this, Modi utilised his third term as chief minister to improve the agricultural output of Gujarat. This was achieved through improving the groundwater supply and overall improvement in the power supply to farms. As a result, agricultural growth in the state saw a substantial increase of 9.6 per cent during 2001-07.

Modi also organised the Sadbhavana (Goodwill) Mission during late 2011 and early 2012 in order to reach out to the Muslim community residing in Gujarat. The mission involved his undertaking a series of fasts and he believed that this step would help strengthen peace, unity and harmony across the state. He was re-elected chief minister for a fourth term in 2012 from the Maninagar constituency, after winning a large majority.

— Research and text by Soonha Abro

A former civil servant and former chief minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal is particularly known for his tenuous efforts for a campaign against corruption.

Born in 1968, Kejriwal hails from the Bhiwani district of India’s Haryana state. He was educated and trained as an engineer but later went to become a civil servant and most recently a politician, forming the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) of which he is the chief.

Although a newbie in the Indian political arena with its foundations laid in 2012, AAP under Kejriwal has swiftly risen to become one of the most distinguished political groups operating in India. The party has a vast following in Delhi and stands a good chance at making significant gains in the ongoing elections.

Kejriwal went to the Campus School in Hisar before studying at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur where he was trained as a mechanical engineer. Following this, Kejriwal started to work at Tata Steel but resigned from his job in 1992 in order to prepare for the examination to join the Indian civil service.

As a civil servant, Kejriwal served in the Income Tax department of the Indian Revenue Service (IRS), where he established a movement with the name of Parivartan (change) to help the citizens of Delhi in scrutinising internal economic matters.

The anti-corruption activist used the Right to Information Act (RTI) to resolve various corruption cases in government departments and was also a core supporter of the India Against Corruption (IAC) campaign of 2011. The campaign aimed at creating anti-corruption laws and Kejriwal actively pushed for greater publicity for the Jan Lokpal Bill (Citizen's ombudsman Bill) which was a product of this drive.

Kejriwal stood in the state elections for Delhi during which his party won 28 of Delhi’s 70 assembly seats. With his AAP supported by the Congress, Kejriwal rose on to become Delhi’s chief minister in Dec 2013, a job which ended after 49 days with his resignation over the Jan Lokpal bill.

He, whose stunning breakthrough in the Delhi state elections in December highlighted public anger towards the political establishment, accused the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party of joining hands to thwart his efforts to bring in the bill, which included plans to set up an anti-corruption commission.

Kejriwal had faced severe criticism for quitting after just 49 days in power. However, his decision to quit so soon is also being viewed as part of a wider strategy to free Kejriwal to lead his party's campaign in the ongoing general election.

For this year's elections Kejriwal has put forward some agendas in the AAP’s manifesto, such as combating corruption, ensuring the efficient administration of justice, introducing measures to facilitate business, countering cross-border terrorism as well as reducing the age-limit for contesting elections.

Signs of disillusion have also been witnessed with the AAP with some voters slapping and smearing ink on the party chief and his colleagues at rallies. However, Kejriwal as well as his party associates insist on campaigning without security in a bid to end the VIP culture perpetuated by the Indian political elite.

Moreover, Kejriwal has forgiven his attackers with complete consistence and on one occasion, also went to the residence of a man who slapped him to hear his grievances.

In the current campaign, Kejriwal has routinely been holding road shows and public meetings but other candidates of the party have mainly remained focused on connecting with people through door-to-door visits.

— Research and text by Sara Alam

Her physical appearance may belie her position but it strikes a chord with the masses of India. Known for her extreme simplicity and frugality, Mamata Banerjee, founder of the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC), and the 11th chief minister of West Bengal was born on Jan 5, 1955.

She grew up in a lower-middle class household and is said to be politically inclined from a very young age.

After separating from the Indian National Congress, Banerjee founded the TMC in 1998 and also became its chief.

Popularly known as Didi (elder sister), she is often cited in the media as one of India’s most volatile political leaders.

An accomplished politician, however, Banerjee has twice remained as the Minister of Railways, Minister of Coal and Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Department of Youth Affairs and Sports and Women and Child Development in the Indian government’s cabinet.

In 2011, Banerjee vanquished the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Left Front in the legislative assembly elections and assumed the chief minister’s office in West Bengal. Her astounding victory also marked the end of the world’s longest running, 34-year old rule of the Left Front Communist government.

Predicted to win adequate seats in a scenario where no Indian political party wins an outright majority in the 2014 general election and moreover likely to play a crucial role in coalition negotiations, Didi is expected to give tough competition to her fellow election candidates.

— Research and text by Fatema Imani

She is a force to be reckoned with as the Indian marathon elections are underway. Jayalalithaa Jayaram – chief minister of Tamil Nadu – and a former movie star could play the role of a kingmaker for frontrunner Hindu hardliner and Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.

Born in Mysore in 1948, Jayalalithaa enjoyed a thriving film career until she made her foray in politics in 1981 – a move which was allegedly facilitated by her friendship with the then-chief minister of Tamil Nadu M.G. Ramachandran and leader of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK).

Partnered with Jayalalithaa as her on-screen love interest, the late Ramachandran had formed AIADMK in 1972 after parting ways with the state’s Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party. Following his illness in 1984, Jayalalithaa allegedly attempted to take the party reigns in her hand.

Later, the success of the AIADMK in the Lokh Sabha and municipal elections and Ramachandran’s subsequent death in 1987 saw Jayalalithaa assuming the party chief’s position.

It was however split into two factions – one which pledged allegiance to Jayalalithaa and the other to Ramachandran’s wife Janaki.

Referred as Amma by her fans, Jayalalithaa was named a member of the Rajya Sabha in 1984 and she retained her seat until she won the election from the Bodinayakkanur constituency in 1989.

Though her party did not form the government, the former glamorous movie star became the first woman to be elected opposition leader in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly.

Allying with the Congress, Jayalalithaa also became the first female chief minister of Tamil Nadu state in 1991 after winning from two constituencies, including Bargur and Kangeyam. Preferring to hold the Bargur seat, she relinquished the latter.

Ever since then she has received both praise from her supporters for launching populist schemes and flak from her detractors for corruption allegations.

During a police raid at her house in 1997, over 10,000 saris and 750 pairs of shoes were discovered whereas a related court case accusing her of amassing disproportionate wealth is still in progress. She lost the legislative assembly elections in 1996 but returned to power in 2002 winning from the Andipatti constituency in the wake of which she served her second term as chief minister of Tamil Nadu until 2006.

In 2011, AIADMK was again voted to power and Jayalalithaa entered her third term as Tamil Nadu chief minister.

— Research and text by Fatema Imani