.

The 2019 Indian general election was held in seven phases from 11 April to 19 May 2019 to constitute the 17th Lok Sabha. The counting of votes will be conducted on 23 May, and on the same day the results will be declared. About 900 million Indian citizens are eligible to vote in one of the seven phases depending on the region. According to most exit polls released on May 19 2019, states The Washington Post, the BJP-led alliance and incumbent prime minister Narendra Modi appeared poised to win reelection.

Legislative Assembly elections in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim were held simultaneously with the general election.

Party Manifestos

Highlights of the Congress manifesto

The Congress released its manifesto, titled Congress Will Deliver on 3 April.^[82][83] Some of its highlights:^[82][84][85]

• Introduce a Nyuntam Aay Yojana welfare program wherein ₹72,000 (US$1,000) per year will be transferred directly to the bank account of a woman-member in each family in the poorest 20 percent households in India.
• Create 1 million "Seva Mitra" jobs in rural and urban local government bodies. Fill all 400,000 central government vacancies before March 2020, and encourage state governments to fill their 2,000,000 job vacancies. Enact a law that requires all non-government controlled employers with over 100 employees to implement an apprentice program.
• Enact a permanent National Commission on Agricultural Development and Planning and introduce a "Kisan Budget" (Farmer Budget) in the parliament every year. Waive all farmer loans in all states with any amounts outstanding.
• Enact a Right to Homestead Act that will provide free land to every household that does not own a home.
• Enact a Right to Healthcare Act and guarantee every Indian citizen free diagnostics, free medicines, free hospitalization and free out-patient care. Double India's spending on healthcare to 3 percent of its Gross Domestic Product by 2024.
• Double India's spending on education to 6 percent of its Gross Domestic Product by 2024.
• Revise the national GST law from three tax tiers to GST 2.0 law with a single moderate rate of tax. Reduce taxes on exported products to zero. Exempt from the GST essential goods and services that are currently not exempt. Enact a new Direct Taxes Code in addition to this revised GST 2.0 law.
• Augment the total length of national highways, increase the pace of construction. Massively modernise Indian railway infrastructure. Promote green energy. Make India one of the top manufacturing hubs in the world.
• Increase defense spending to strengthen Indian Armed Forces.
• Enact a National Election Fund, wherein public funds will be distributed to recognised political parties to run their campaign
• Preserve special status and special rights to natives of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 and 35A of the Indian constitution.^[85]
• Amend the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act of 1958 to remove immunity for "enforced disappearance, sexual violence and torture". End the Sedition law (Section 124A) because it has been misused and has become redundant.

Highlights of the BJP manifesto

The BJP released its manifesto called Sankalp Patra (lit. "Letter of Promise") sub-titled Sankalpit Bharat, Sashakt Bharat on 8 April.^[86][87] Some of its highlights:^[88][87][85]

• Double farmer incomes by 2022 by completing all major and micro-irrigation infrastructure projects, opening adequate markets and modern farm produce storage centers, implement minimum price supports for farmer produce, farmer loans and all-weather rural roads. Introduce a pension bill for small and marginal farmers to provide social security after 60 years of age.
• Bring all secondary schools under the national board quality preview. Invest ₹1,000,000,000,000 (US$14 billion) in higher education, open new and increase seats at existing engineering, management and law schools. Establish skills and innovations center at block-level in every town. Enhance higher education opportunities for women by introducing financial support and subsidies programs. Source 10% of government procurement from companies with more than 50% female employees.
• Ensure a pucca (lit. brick-solid, modern) house, safe potable water, toilet, LPG gas cylinder, electricity and banking account for every family. Reduce the percentage of families living under the poverty line to a single digit by 2024.
• Double the length of national highways. Improve fuel quality by mandating 10% ethanol in petrol. Scale renewable energy capacity to 175 GW.
• Electrify and convert to broad gauge all Indian railway tracks.
• Establish 150,000 health and wellness centers across India. Start 75 new medical colleges. Raise doctor-to-population ratio to 1:1400. Triple childcare facilities in India. Achieve 100% immunization of all babies in India.
• Raise India's ranking further in "ease of doing business". Double India's exports, introduce single-window compliance procedures for all businesses.
• Reduce air pollution by eliminating all crop residue burning in India.
• Digitize paperwork and proceedings, modernize the courts in India.
• Launch and promote a National Digital Library with e-books and leading journals to provide free knowledge access to all students. Launch a "Study in India" program to bring foreign students to institutes of higher education.
• Zero tolerance for terrorism, fund resources to strengthen national security, guarantee veterans and soldier welfare, modernize police forces.
• End special status and special rights to natives of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 and 35A of the Indian constitution because these provisions have prevented the development of the state.^[85]

Other parties

Other national and regional parties have released their manifestos too:

• The Tamil Nadu-based regional parties, and arch rivals AIADMK and DMK released their 2019 election manifesto on March 18 2019, with each promising to release the seven Tamils jailed after being found guilty for their role in the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, a former Congress party leader and prime minister of India. The AIADMK has promised to press for the political rights of the Tamil people in the Eelam region of Sri Lanka, while the DMK has promised Indian citizenship to all Sri Lankan expats. According to the Deccan Herald, the AIADMK has promised a cash transfer of ₹18,000 (US$260) per year to "all families below the poverty level, destitute women, widows without income, differently-abled, landless agricultural labourers, rural and urban manual labourers and destitute senior citizens". The AIADMK has also promised to raise the tax exemption limit, and revisions to the GST tax law. The DMK has promised a probe into Rafale fighter jet deal between India and France, and a plan to distribute free sanitary napkins to working women along with starting martial arts schools for girls.^[89]
• Biju Janata Dal (BJD) released its manifesto on April 9 2019. It promises a ₹100,000 (US$1,400) zero-interest crop loan to farmers every year, a ₹500,000 (US$7,200) zero-interest loan to women-run self-help groups, 75 percent jobs reservation in Odisha-based companies to Odisha youth, free education to all girls and a marriage assistance grant of ₹25,000 (US$360) to daughters of poor families. It also promised to complete an expressway connecting the state's north to its south, as well as another expressway to connect its east to its west.^[90]
• Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPIM) 2019 election manifesto promises raising the minimum wage to ₹216,000 (US$3,100) per year, an old age pension of ₹72,000(US$1,000) per year and universal public distribution of 35 kilograms of foodgrains per family. CPIM's manifesto states it will restore inheritance tax, and raise the taxes on individuals and corporations.^[91] The manifesto also promises spending 6% of India's GDP on education, enacting a Right to Free Health Care with 3.5% of GDP on health in the short term and 5% in the long term, introduce price controls on essential drugs, break monopoly of drug multinationals, as well as enact a Right to Guaranteed Employment in urban areas.^[92] According to the news channel CNBC India, the CPM manifesto promises "subsidies, more state control of the economy, strengthening of public sector behemoths and monopolies" and "bring back the memories of the socialist era which bred monopoly and wasteful state subsidies" in India.^[91]
• Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in its manifesto promised to open talks with Pakistan on terrorism. The party also promised to significantly expand India's trade and political relationship with Russia, and seek to weaken Russia's ties with China and Pakistan.^[93]
• Samajwadi Party has promised an annual pension of ₹36,000 (US$520) to poor families in a form of a cash transfer to women. It has also proposed a new property tax of 2 percent on homes valued above ₹25,000,000 (US$360,000) as well as raising income taxes on the affluent. The party's manifesto promises creating 100,000 new jobs every year in India.^[94]
• Telugu Desam Party released its manifesto on April 5 2019. It promised zero-interest loans to farmer without any caps, a grant of ₹15,000 (US$220) per year to each farmer as investment support, a grant of ₹100,000 (US$1,400) to each family with a daughter in the year of her marriage, an unemployment allowance of ₹3,000 (US$43) for any youth who has completed intermediate education, and free laptops to all students at the intermediate level.^[95]
• AITMC's manifesto was released on March 27 2019. It promises a judicial probe into demonetization, a review of GST law by experts, and that it will seek to bring back the Planning Commission. Its manifesto also promises free medical care along the lines that the Trinamool's state government has been implementing in West Bengal. AITMC will seek to expand the "100-day work scheme" currently operating in India to "200-day work scheme" along with an appropriate pay increase.^[96]
• Aam Aadmi Party released its manifesto on April 25 2019 titled ‘Lekar Rahenge Poorn Rajya’ (lit. "We will take full statehood"). It promises full statehood for India's capital Delhi to give the Delhi government control over police and other institutions.^[97] The manifesto promises 85% reservations in the Delhi-based colleges and jobs for the voters of Delhi and their families.^[98][99]

Campaign finance

Several organizations have offered varying estimates for the cost of 2019 general elections in India. The Centre for Media Studies in New Delhi estimates the 2019 election campaign could exceed $7 billion.^[100] According to the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), an election watchdog, in the financial year 2017-18 BJP received ₹4,370,000,000(US$63 million), about 12 times more donations than Congress and five other national parties combined.^[100] Between January 1 and March 31 2019, donors bought ₹17,100,000,000 (US$250 million) worth of electoral bonds and donated them to the party of their choice.^[101] According to The Economic Times, India's business community has predominantly donated to BJP and are set to vote for Modi's party overwhelmingly again, even though they are less enthusiastic about Modi in 2019 compared to 2014, because they fear that a Congress-led coalition could put a halt to much-needed economic reforms.^[100]

The biggest change in India’s campaign finance laws has been the electoral bonds introduced by the Modi government. A donor can buy an electoral bond from a national bank such as the State Bank of India, in denominations ranging from 1,000 rupees to 10 million rupees ($14 to $140,000). These bonds are then donated to a political party of the donor's choice. The bonds don’t carry the name of the donor and are exempt from tax.^[102] According to Arun Jaitley, the finance minister of India, compared to cash donations of the past, the electoral bonds "help improve transparency because they are banking instruments, every political party has to disclose how much it received", and the bank records can be traced.^{[102][note 3]} Factly – an India data journalism portal, traced the electoral bond donations for 2018 under India's Right to Information Act. According to Factly, electoral bonds worth about ₹10,600,000,000 (US$150 million) were purchased and donated in 2018. According to Bloomberg, this accounted for 31.2% of political donations in 2018, while 51.4% of the total donated amount were each below ₹20,000 (US$290) and these too were from unknown donors. About 47% of the donations to Indian political parties were from known sources.^[102] The spending in general elections boosts India's GDP, and the 2009 election spending contributed about 0.5% to its GDP.^[106]

Candidates with criminal allegations

According to the Association for Democratic Reforms – an Indian advocacy group, 464 of the total 2,856 contestants in the first two phases of the election have disclosed criminal cases against themselves in their nomination papers, as required by Indian election disclosure laws.^[107] In the first two phases of elections, the Congress Party topped the list, having nominated 23 candidates with pending criminal cases to compete in the parliamentary elections. The BJP and BSP ranked next, each with 16 candidates.^[107]

For the third phase of the election, all major national and regional parties had at least one candidate with a pending criminal case. The Congress party topped the list for the third phase, having nominated 90 candidates of which 40 have pending criminal allegations, with 27 accused with serious allegations such as rape, murder or attempted murder. The BJP has nominated 97 candidates with 38 who have criminal allegations pending, with 26 accused with serious allegations. The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has the highest percentage (60%) of candidates facing serious charges which could result in imprisonment of five years or more. After the NCP, the parties with the highest percentage of candidates accused of serious crimes are the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Samajwadi Party and the All India Trinamool Congress, claims the Association for Democratic Reforms analysis.^[108]

Parties and alliances

More than 50 parties are contesting these elections. Most of them are small with regional appeal. The main parties are the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) and the Indian National Congress (INC). With the exception of 2014, no single party has won the majority of seats in the Lok sabha since 1984, and therefore forming alliances is the norm in Indian elections. In the 2019 general election, there are four main national pre-poll alliances. They are the NDA headed by the BJP, the UPA headed by the INC, the grand alliance of regional parties, and the left front of Communist-leaning parties. Given the volatile nature of coalition politics in India, alliances may change during and after the election. 2019 General Election is the first time when BJP (437) is contesting more seats than Congress (421) in the Lok Sabha elections.^[109][110]

The INC has not formed alliance in states where it is in direct contest with the BJP. These states include Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. It has formed alliances with regional parties in Jammu and Kashmir, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Jharkhand, and Kerala. The party has not been able to form alliance with other parties in Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Northeast, Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and Goa. ^[111]

Early in the campaign in January 2019, Mayawati (president of the Bahujan Samaj Party) and Akhilesh Yadav (president of the Samajwadi Party) announced an alliance(Mahagathbandhan) to contest 76 seats out of the 80 in Uttar Pradesh and the alliance will not fight in four seats, namely Amethi and Rae Bareli which they left for Congress and another two for other political parties. The alliance did not include Congress, with Mayawati stating, "Including Congress in the alliance will hurt SP-BSP prospects as Congress's votes do not get transferred" and "the policies of both these parties [BJP and Congress] have been mostly the same". The alliance was the second of its kind with a similar coalition formed 25 years ago in 1993.^[112]

Voting

According to the Election Commission of India, 900 million people were eligible to vote, with an increase of 84.3 million voters since the last general election in 2014,^[139][140] making this the largest-ever election in the world.^[141] 15 million voters in the age group of 18–19 years are eligible to exercise their right to vote for the first time while 38,325 transgender individuals will be able to vote for the first time as members of the third-sex and not as male or female.^[142][143] 71,735 overseas voters have been enrolled in the electoral rolls for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

In 2015, an India-Bangladesh boundary agreement was signed, in which the two countries exchanged their enclaves that were entirely surrounded by the other's boundaries. As a result, it will be the first time in which residents of these former enclaves vote in an Indian general election.^[144]

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