General elections were held in India in five phases between 16 April 2009 and 13 May 2009 to elect the members of the fifteenth Lok Sabha. With a registered electorate of 716 million and a turnout of 417 million voters, it was the largest democratic election in the world until being surpassed by the 2014 general election.

By constitutional requirement, elections to the Lok Sabha must be held every five years or when Parliament is dissolved by the president. The previous elections were held in May 2004; the term of the 14th Lok Sabha would have naturally expired on 1 June 2009. The elections were organised by the Election Commission of India (ECI) and were held in multiple phases to better handle the large electorate and security concerns. In February 2009, Rs.11.20 billion ($200.5 million) was budgeted for election expenses by parliament.

A total of 8,070 candidates contested 543 seats elected in single-member constituencies using first-past-the-post voting. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA), led by the official opposition, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and the newly formed Third Front, led by Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)) and mainly constituted of regional parties, challenged the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, making the election a triangular fight. Voter turnout over all five phases was around 58%. The results of the election were announced within three days of phase five, on 16 May.

The UPA returned to government with an increased majority, with strong results in Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Kerala, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal; in all, there was support from 322 of the 543 elected members, including external support from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Samajwadi Party (SP), Janata Dal (Secular) (JD(S)), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and other minor parties. Manmohan Singh became the first prime minister since Jawaharlal Nehru in 1962 to be re-elected after completing a full five-year term. He was sworn in to his second term by President Pratibha Patil on 22 May 2009 in the Ashoka Hall, Rashtrapati Bhavan. He would go on to complete a full five-year term; however, the UPA would lose to the NDA in a landslide in the next election.

Background

The election, while following the normal five-year cycle, came after a break in the first UPA alliance after the left parties withdrew their support due to the Indo-US nuclear deal and forcing a vote of confidence, which Singh's government survived.

Electoral issues Delimitation

The 2009 elections adopted re-drawn electoral constituencies based on the 2001 census, following the 2002 Delimitation Commission of India, whose recommendations were approved in February 2008.

In the 2009 general elections, 499 out of the total 543 Parliamentary constituencies were newly delimited constituencies. This affected the National Capital Region of Delhi, the Union Territory of Puducherry and all the states except Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Manipur and Nagaland. While comparing election results, it must be borne in mind that in many instances a constituency with the same name may reflect a significantly different population demographic as well as a slightly altered geographical region.

Electronic voting machines

As in the 2004 election, this election was also conducted completely using electronic voting machines (EVMs), with 1,368,430 voting machines deployed across the country.

Polling stations

There were 828,804 Polling Stations around the country – a 20% increase over the number from the 2004 election. This was done mainly to avoid vulnerability to threat and intimidation, to overcome geographical barriers and to reduce the distance travelled by voters.

The CEC announced that the polling station in Banej village in the Una segment of Junagadh, Gujarat had the unique claim to being the only polling station in the country that catered to a single elector – Guru Shree Bharatdasji Bapu, a priest of a Shiva temple in the middle of the Gir Forest.

Electoral rolls The electoral rolls had to be completely updated because of the delimitation that took effect from February 2008. The process of updating the electoral rolls continued until the last date of filing nominations. 714 million people were eligible to vote in 2009, up 6.4% (43 million) from 2004.

This election also saw the entire country except the states of Assam, Nagaland and Jammu & Kashmir use photo electoral rolls. This meant that the photo of each elector was printed on the electoral rolls and this was intended to facilitate easy identification and prevent impersonations.

In addition to the photo electoral rolls, the electors also needed to provide separate photo identification. Those electors who had already been issued Electoral Photo Identification Cards (EPIC) were only permitted to use the EPIC for identification at the polling station. According to the EC, 82% of the country's electors (except those in Assam) have been issued EPIC before the 2009 election was announced.

Polling schedule

Background The Chief Election Commissioner of India (CEC), N. Gopalaswami, had stated on 28 December 2008, that the elections were likely to be held between April and May 2009. He attributed this schedule to the examination period from February to March, making polling places unavailable.

On 31 January 2009, fractures within the Election Commission came to the fore when Gopalaswami recommended to President Pratibha Patil that Election Commissioner Navin Chawla be sacked for behaving in a partisan manner. This recommendation in itself was controversial, as it was unclear if a CEC had the legal and constitutional right to provide such a unilateral recommendation. Chawla refused to resign as he was expected to take over the post of Chief Election Commissioner a few months later.

This controversy also resulted in speculation that the Election Commission was unable to agree on the actual polling dates, with the incumbent CEC Gopalaswami preferring that at least one phase of elections be held before his retirement on 20 April 2009. Navin Chawla, on the other hand, wanted the election to only start after Gopalaswami retired.

Eventually, on 1 March 2009, President Patil rejected Gopalaswami's recommendation to remove Chawla after the Government advised her to do so. Soon after the above announcement by President Patil, the Election Commissioners got together to announce the details of the general election.

The polling schedule for the 2009 General Elections was announced by the Chief Election Commissioner on 2 March 2009.

Subsequently, the President's House announced on 4 March 2009 that CEC Gopalaswami would retire as scheduled on 20 April 2009 and Navin Chawla would take over as CEC starting 21 April 2009. It was the first time in the history of Indian politics that two different people oversaw different phases of the same election.

Polling schedule

+Polling schedule by state/union territory States/UTs Constituencies Phases Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 Phase 4 Phase 5 Avg Turnout 16 April Turnout 22/23 April Turnout 30 April Turnout 7 May Turnout 13 May Turnout Andaman & Nicobar Islands 1 1 1 64.15% – – – – 64.15% Andhra Pradesh 42 2 22 69.75% 20 75.50% – – – 72.40% Arunachal Pradesh 2 1 2 65.00% – – – – 65.00% Assam 14 2 3 67.61% 11 70.06% – – – 69.68% Bihar 40 4 13 43.21% 13 45.83% 11 46.12% 3 37.00% – 44.27% Chandigarh 1 1 – – – – 1 65.51% 65.51% Chhattisgarh 11 1 11 58.19% – – – – 58.19% Dadra & Nagar Haveli 1 1 – – 1 73.22% – – 73.22% Daman & Diu 1 1 – – 1 71.85% – – 71.85% Delhi 7 1 – – – 7 51.79% – 51.79% Goa 2 1 – 2 55.42% – – – 55.42% Gujarat 26 1 – – 26 47.92% – – 47.92% Haryana 10 1 – – – 10 67.67% – 67.67% Himachal Pradesh 4 1 – – – – 4 58.35% 58.35% Jammu & Kashmir 6 5 1 49.68% 1 44.73% 1 26.43% 1 25.38% 2 45.63% 39.66% Jharkhand 14 2 6 51.16% 8 48.86% – – – 49.77% Karnataka 28 2 – 17 60.00% 11 58.48% – – 59.44% Kerala 20 1 20 73.33% – – – – 73.33% Lakshadweep 1 1 1 86.10% – – – – 86.10% Madhya Pradesh 29 2 – 13 51.39% 16 51.22% – – 51.30% Maharashtra 48 3 13 55.74% 25 49.18% 10 41.24% – – 49.17% Manipur 2 2 1 83.70% 1 75.50% – – – 79.80% Meghalaya 2 1 2 64.40% – – – – 64.40% Mizoram 1 1 1 50.93% – – – – 50.93% Nagaland 1 1 1 90.21% – – – – 90.21% Orissa 21 2 10 64.90% 11 62.00% – – – 63.35% Puducherry 1 1 – – – – 1 79.70% 79.70% Punjab 13 2 – – – 4 72.78% 9 68.13% 69.58% Rajasthan 25 1 – – – 25 48.50% – 48.50% Sikkim 1 1 – – 1 82.00% – – 82.00% Tamil Nadu 39 1 – – – – 39 72.46% 72.46% Tripura 2 1 – 2 83.91% – – – 83.91% Uttar Pradesh 80 5 16 45.37% 17 45.48% 15 46.12% 18 48.00% 14 47.55% 46.45% Uttarakhand 5 1 – – – – 5 53.67% 53.67% West Bengal 42 3 – – 14 80.71% 17 82.60% 11 76.30% 78.93% Total constituencies 543 124 59.07% 141 56.66% 107 52.12% 85 52.32% 86 65.74% 56.97% Total states/UTs polling on this day 17 13 11 8 9 States/UTs Constituencies Number of states and UTs polling in single phase 22 164 Number of states and UTs polling in two phases 8 163 Number of states and UTs polling in three phases 2 90 Number of states and UTs polling in four phases 1 40 Number of states and UTs polling in five phases 2 86 Total 35 543 Source: Election Commission of India

Coalitions The 2009 general election saw three main national pre-poll alliances. Given the volatile nature of coalition politics in India, many parties changed alliances before, during and after the elections. The two larger coalitions, UPA and NDA, had clearly indicated their prime ministerial candidates during campaigning for the election. The Third Front announced repeatedly through the campaigning period that their prime ministerial candidate would only be decided after the election results came out. In Indian parliamentary system, the announcement of Prime Ministerial candidates prior to elections is not required.

United Progressive Alliance

Prime Minister candidate: Manmohan Singh (Indian National Congress (INC))

The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) was formed after the 2004 general election to bring together parties that either allied with the Congress in various states, or were willing to support a Congress-led national government. Though the UPA never enjoyed a clear majority on its own in the 14th Lok Sabha, it managed to complete its five-year term from 2004 to 2009 by securing outside support from the left parties (CPI(M), CPI, AIFB, RSP), Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party at different times during this tenure.

Following the August 2008 confidence vote victory for the current government, a statement by Congress President Sonia Gandhi caused speculation that the UPA would project Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as the Prime Ministerial candidate in the next elections. While Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader M. Karunanidhi supported Manmohan Singh as the PM candidate, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar tried to project himself as a possible Prime Ministerial candidate as well. On 24 January 2009, Manmohan Singh underwent a cardiac bypass surgery at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. Following the surgery, speculation of alternate PM candidates arose both within the Congress and amongst coalition partners. In an attempt to quell such speculations, Sonia Gandhi on 6 February 2009, confirmed that Manmohan Singh would be the UPA's PM candidate by writing so in the Congress party magazine Sandesh. This was the first time in the history of Indian elections that the Congress party had declared its Prime Ministerial candidate prior to the elections.

National Democratic Alliance

Prime Minister candidate: Lal Krishna Advani (Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP))