AS WE WAIT FOR THE D-DAY....

By Ruma Dubey

With the entire nation waiting for 16^th May, nothing else – be it IIP, rising CPI or moderating WPI or even poor numbers – nothing seems to matter to the market. So we thought we will look at some of the interesting tidbits of this Lok Sabha  2014 elections. This is like a ‘break’ till we get the results tomorrow.

• Probably for the first time ever the youth of India is waiting eagerly for 16^th May, a date more eagerly awaited than 14^th Feb.
• The mammoth job tomorrow - 550 million votes sealed in more than 1.8 million electronic voting machines (EVMs) are to be counted in about 12 hours.
• A million people will be engaged in the counting activity and half a million security personnel will ensure that all goes on smoothly.
• Counting will begin at 8am and we will start getting the numbers from 11am.
• Modak Analytics conducted an interesting study based on the electoral names - Of the 13.4 crore voters in Uttar Pradesh, at least 1.2 crore people have Ram somewhere in their name. Ramesh is the most common name in India. In Bihar 3.27 lakh women have Sita as their first name, while 3 lakh women in Gujarat go by Gita Ben.
• We will remember 2014 for the war of words between leaders, saw politics getting petty and personal.
• Priyanka Gandhi has emerged stronger while Rahul as a blundering, I-do-not-belong-here kind of leader.
• Modi has proven how a very well conducted PR exercise, beginning a few years ahead of elections can indeed work wonders.
• AAP has shown us Indians as dream – there is space for a third party but unfortunately with AAP floundering in Delhi, we only this hope. But what it did do was make us realize that enough in enough, we do not any more corruption, we want development and more employment opportunities.
• Varanasi has indeed become a hot spot and as usual, Amethi was in the limelight with Rahul, Kumar Vishwas and Smriti Irani contesting.
• We saw the highest voter turnout in the history of Indian democracy.
• Arvind Kejriwal getting slapped around time and again was a low point of Indian democracy.
• There was some scandal too – Modi finally acknowledging that he is married and the affair of Digvijay Singh
• For the first time, NOTA became a reality and was an option on the EVM.
• India's Supreme Court recognized transgender people as a legal third gender.
• The first time voters in India stand at 23,161,296.
• Social Media played a big role during the Lok Sabha elections.
• Media made merry, laughing all the way to the bank.
• This was the most expensive Lok Sabha elections entailing a cost of Rs 3,426 crore to the national exchequer, a substantial jump of 131% over the expenses incurred in 2009.