| Summary/Abstract |
The recently concluded Indian parliamentary election—where more than half a billion voters queued up in nearly a million polling booths over 6 weeks—was fought largely on the plank of development. The newly elected Prime Minister, Narendra Modi of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), won a decisive majority and his party ran its campaign largely revolving around his personality, and his track record as the Chief Minister of the prosperous state of Gujarat since 2001. Exploiting well the widespread discontent over economic slowdown, inflation and corruption scandals of the previous government under the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), the BJP managed to set the terms of the debate by touting the model of development pursued by Modi in Gujarat as a prototype for the remainder of India.
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