AlwaysIndian.com

The recently concluded elections saw around 714 million voters eligible to cast their ballots at more than 828,000 polling stations. The major political parties in these elections were the Congress, the BJP and Third Front: An alliance of communists, socialists, regional parties and caste-based parties. . The polls started on April 16th and ended on 14th may o9.

It was expected that the voter turnout would be more than the previous years but the average was same. In the first phase of voting which took place on April 16th the turnout was 60% out of the 143 million eligible voters. In the 2nd phase the voter turnout was 55 percent out of 19.4 million eligible voters. The third phase of the polls saw the voter turnout as 52 percent out of the 144 million eligible voters. The 4 phase of the polls the voter turnout was 57 percent out of the 9.46 million eligible voters. The 5th phase saw the voter turnout at 62% out of the 108 million eligible voters.

The major issues which were to be addressed during these elections were the security of the country, recession. The political parties did not seem to have any central issues which made the voters confused. The campaigning revolved around the same old promises of jobs and prosperity. The post poll alliances suggested India could be heading for a weak coalition government, with the ruling Congress-led alliance and its rivals falling short of an outright majority.

The elections are also going to play a pivotal role in the economic growth as the major concern is recession. The economists are also of the opinion that whichever government comes it should be stable. It is also believed that the government which is formed will not bring much respite. The financial experts also say that the fiscal indiscipline will remain and, the manifestos have populist measures. The bringing down of the fiscal deficit from more than 10 percent to 5 percent is going to be a challenge even if it is a single party.

The results of the polls are expected to come out by May 16th. We will have to wait and watch to see what policies are going to be formed by the new government to overcome various issues.

Source: Reuters , Economic Times

India’s election commission has announced that balloting for the elections will begin on April 16. That leaves less than 45 days for parties to pitch their message to the country’s 714 million voters in the world’s most populous democracy.

BJP has already started campaigning aggressively and pitching 81 year old L.K Advani as the next Prime Minister via its online campaigns. L. K Advani also has a blog and forum presence online. Congress is also expected to use the online route to reach out to the educated voter.

Companies like Tata Tea are also riding the election wave and has been all over the mass media and web with their 1 billion votes campaign jaagore.com; and that’s not all the political parties themselves are expected to shell out big money during election campaigning. It is likely that both BJP and Congress are to spend Rs. 200 crore in the ensuing elections, additionally large amounts are likely to be spent by smaller parties as well.

All in all political parties are expected to have the largest marketing spends as the financial year 2008-09 comes to a close. Though most marketers would stay away from politics I don’t think that in these times of recession any marketer is complaining about the rise of politics and politicians especially with the marketing budgets they have at hand.