The people speak: electioneering in the world’s largest democracy

[NB most of this post is only really relevant to the downtrodden exploited victims of a corrupt political oligarchy, that is, the average Queensland voter.]

I don't know what it says but voters stuck in India's usual
dreadful traffic congestion will have plent of time to read
all the political messaging.

A state election is looming in a largely rural state with a small for size population; the death grip on power has see-sawed between the two main parties for the last few terms; both large parties are despised and possibly corrupt but they are throwing everything into their campaigns; the smaller parties and independents are struggling to match the big money promises. 

Sound familiar?

But it isn't Queensland - it is Himachal Pradesh which is going to the polls on Thursday 9 November. And the state election campaign has taken over the airways, every chai stall, every village, and every roadway. 

You cannot avoid this campaign. We have had our ears blasted with slogans, ducked under flags and posters, shaken hands with cheery campaigners in tea estates and posed for photos wearing creepily lifelike BJP leader masks. (well, Simon did.)

Of the two main parties, Congress holds power currently in “HP” but the party that led India to independence exactly 70 years ago is lagging in the polls and lacking the zest and volunteer power of its arch rival, the BJP. I guess you can only trade for so long on the Ghandi name, and nominal Congress star Rahul - grandson of Indira and son of Rajiv - doesn't seem to have the political firepower of his ancestors (or maybe he doesn't want to be murdered by angry opponents which were the bloody fates of his assassinated grandmother and father, and uncle Sanjay).

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in power federally under the inspirational/dictatorial (depending who you talk to) yoga-loving Prime Minister Narendra Mohdi, is blitzing HP with rallies, amplified slogans booming out of Maruti Suzukis, flags on rural shop fronts, posters on car rear windows, stencilled lotus logos on every flat surface.

“They just don’t want people to vote for Mohdi,” says our friend Sachin about the independent candidates who are resorting to personally driving tractors slowly through country towns and making the most of their ability to talk to voters face to face because they don’t have the money for juggernaut campaigns. (Ironic that this term 'juggernaut' should apply to an Indian election: ). 

Like Queensland's One Nation, these policy free mavericks appeal to the rural disgruntled voters who feel ignored by the big parties; they could hold the balance of power after the results are relaeased on 18 December. 

Fighting both big parties and revelling in its underdog status is the Communisty Party of India (Marxist) - the CPI(M) - which is putting up candidates in 30 of the 68 state seats. Where else but India could a serious party proudly keep a reference to Karl Marx in its name? 

Truly this is the world’s greatest democracy.