Election 2004 was India’s fourteenth election forced by an early dissolution of Lok Sabha in February 2004. The elections were conducted over four days, beginning April 20 and ending May 10. The counting began on May 13. There were some 675 million eligible voters, 5 million election officials and staff, and 800,000 polling stations. With 7 recognized “National†parties, 2 “Regional†parties, and another 657 parties too small to secure official recognition, some 5000 candidates entered the race for the 543 contested seats. As always, when India goes to the polls, it was the world’s biggest election, and the turnout, despite predictions of voter fatigue, was over 50 percent. As in 1999, there were two basic groupings, though the pattern of alliances was modified as parties split or shifted allegiance. The BJP’s skill inn forging the new National Democratic Alliance receded in 2004 and the number of parties committed to Vajpayee’s leadership decreased to mere 9 from 24. The Congress, led by Sonia Gandhi, Italian-born widow of assassinated former Prime Minister Rajiv Gadhi, learning her lessons from the defeat of 1999 election, also forged a large national level alliance instead of projecting the prospect of single-party government in the old Congress mould. The book provides the details of entire process of election 2004 and documents all related information in the form of statistics and data. It provides complete election results from the first Lok Sabha elections held in year 1952 to the current held this year. It is intended to serve as an election handbook for researchers, media persons, psephologists and policy makers.
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