Indian general election, 2014 and AAP affect
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The Indian general election of 2014 was held to constitute the 16th Lok Sabha, electing members of parliament for all 543 parliamentary constituencies of India.
The average election turnout over all nine phases was around 66.38%, the highest ever in the history of Indian general elections
The National Democratic Alliance, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party, won a sweeping victory, taking 336 seats. The BJP itself won 31.0% of all votes and 282 (51.9%) of all seats. It is the first time since the 1984 Indian general elections that a party has won enough seats to govern without the support of other parties.The United Progressive Alliance, led by the Indian National Congress, won 58 seats, 44 (8.1%) of which were won by the Congress, that won 19.3% of all votes. It was the Congress party's worst defeat in a general election. BJP and its allies won a right to form the largest majority government since 1984 general election.
Since the last general election in 2009, the anti-corruption movement by Anna Hazare, and other similar moves by Baba Ramdev and Arvind Kejriwal gathered momentum and political interest.Kejriwal went on to form a separate political party, Aam Aadmi Party in November 2012.The final session of parliament started on 6 February and ended on 21 February. Amongst the agenda in the final session was passing the The Lokpal and Lokayuktas Bill, 2013 in tackling corruption and the creation of Telangana
During the UPA 2, a number of scams came to public domain deteriorating the image of the government among the common man. These scams included coal scam, 2G scam and CWG scam.
Important issues during the campaign included high inflation, lack of jobs, economic slow down, corruption, security and terrorism, religious division and communalism, and infrastructure such as roads, electricity and water. In another survey by Zee News for about 14% of people, corruption is the main issue in the election.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), formed in 2012, contested 432 seats and won 4 seats. The party's manifesto focused on anti-corruption measures. Earlier in 2013, the party had made an impressive electoral debut by winning the second highest number of seats in the Delhi Legisltive Assembly elections. After forming a short-lived minority government in Delhi, AAP was seen as a major challenger to the other political parties.However, the party lost deposits on 413 seats, surpassing the record of Doordarshi Party, which had lost deposit on 321 seats in 1991.AAP's leader Arvind Kejriwal unsuccessfully contested against the BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi from Varanasi. Its spokesperson Prashant Bhushan argued that AAP's national debut performance was better than that of the winning party BJP in its first national elections in 1984.
The aims and ideology of the AAP was good but the election strategy was not good. It is very clear that the AAP affect help the National Democratic Alliance, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party, won a sweeping victory by dividing the anti Bharatiya Janata Party's vote
