Democratic Festivities during the Elections of “Lok Sabha” Members of Parliament, India 2019

Abstract

This article examines the surge of political activities surrounding the 17^th general elections in 2019 for the Indian lower House of Parliament or “Lok Sabha”, in which there were 900 million voters, using data collected from Indian government organizations and online news media. It focuses on important activities undertaken by political parties and their leaders, and also their votebanks, alliances and contested seats. The study revealed a political orientation positive towards the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Narendra Modi’s return as Prime Minister for a second term to further his socio-economic policies in accordance with long-term nationalistic ideals. On the other hand, the oldest party, the Indian National Congress (INC), suffered a defeat, as it had done in recent years, and independent parties retained or went beyond their regional votebanks. There were numerous regional parties from West Bengal to southern India which did not support the Government’s methods and ideals. At the same time, an increasingly diverse range of people exhibited an enthusiastic level of political participation. This was evident in active social media campaigns, which livened up the Indian political scene spectacularly.