Despite a decade under Congress when growth has averaged 7.6 percent per year, a sharp slowdown since 2012 has crippled public finances and led investment to crash. Coupled with a widespread perception that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's second
Pic for representation purpose only
The marathon contest got under way after a bad-tempered campaign which reached new levels of bitterness at the weekend. Religious tensions, an undercurrent to the contest which has mostly focused on development until now, burst into the open on
Voting began at 7:00am (0130 GMT) in six constituencies in tea-growing and insurgency-wracked areas of the northeast, an often neglected part of the country wedged between Bangladesh, China and Myanmar. The nine-phase parliamentary election ends on
The states which will be covered in Saturday’s phase are Goa, Assam, Tripura and Sikkim. Photo: PTI
A couple smile as they come out of a polling booth after casting their votes during the first phase of elections in Agartala (Photo: AP)
Indians began voting in the world's biggest election Monday which is set to sweep the Hindu nationalist opposition to power at a time of low growth, anger about corruption and warnings about religious unrest. India's 814-million-strong electorate
Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi filed his nomination from Amethi in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday. He was accompanied by his mother Sonia, sister Priyanka and her husband Robert Vadra.
Supporters shower Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi as he along with his sister Priyanka Vadra is on the way to file his nomination papers for Amethi parliamentary seat, in Amethi on Saturday.
BJP candidate and sitting MP from Jhalawar-Baran Lok Sabha seat Dushyant Singh files his nomination papers with his mother Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and wife Niharika ,in Jhalawar, Rajasthan.
Bollywood star and BJP candidate for Gurdaspur Lok Sabha seat, Vinod Khanna filling his nomination papers in Gurdaspur.
Shyama Charan Gupta files his nomination papers as a BJP's candidate from Allahabad Lok Sabha seat, in Allahabad on Saturday.
Mr Gandhi files his nomination papers for Amethi parliamentary seat as Congress president and his mother Sonia Gandhi looks on.
Mr Gandhi waving to his supporters at the grand roadshow, just before filing his nomination papers for Amethi.
Mr Gandhi, center right, waves to supporters, with his sister Priyanka Vadra seated by his side as he arrives to file his nomination for the ongoing general elections in Amethi.
Mr Gandhi with his sister, Priyanka Vadra on his way to file his nomination papers for Amethi parliamentary seat.
"I have been working in Amethi for 10 years. We have family ties with Amethi, it will be a good victory," Mr Gandhi told reporters.
Mishing tribal women on a country boat head towards a polling station to cast their votes during the first phase of elections at Misamora Sapori, an island in the River Brahmaputra in the northeastern Assam state. India started the world's largest
Thursday's parliamentary candidates range from IT billionaire and Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani, running for Congress in Bangalore, to Maneka Gandhi standing for the BJP in Uttar Pradesh.
Opinion polls wrongly predicted a victory for a BJP-led alliance in elections in 2004 and underestimated Congress's winning margin in 2009.
Indian elections are notoriously hard to forecast due to the country's diverse electorate and parliamentary system in which local candidates hold great sway.
Khan had just cast a vote for the Nationalist Congress Party, a Congress ally, in a polling station set up in a government school.
"People have forgotten what Modi did to people of this country. I think saving people's lives is more important than development," said Shafina Khan, a 21-year-old Muslim teacher in Kamshet.
Picture for representational purpose (Photo: AP)
In an interview with ANI television news on Wednesday, Modi accused journalists of seeking to smear him over the riots.
Modi denies accusations that he failed to stop the riots and a Supreme Court inquiry found no evidence to prosecute him.
Picture for representation purpose.
"They have to give it to somebody else. (Leaders) should not only come from Nehru's family."
"It's only a dynasty, like previously we had kings ruling," said P.V. Padmanabhan, a 79-year-old retired electricity board official.
Congress has struggled in recent days with a former media adviser and a former coal secretary both releasing books that paint Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as a well-intentioned but weak figure who answers only to party president Sonia Gandhi.
The Congress party is forecast to suffer its worst-ever defeat after a decade in power due to public anger over the economic slowdown, high inflation and a string of graft scandals.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi gestures while addressing the 69th session of the United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York on Saturday. (Photo: PTI)
Picture for representational purpose only.
BJP’s prime candidate Narendra Modi has been wooing voters with promises to rescue the country from its slowest economic growth in a decade and create jobs for its booming young population.