A general election will be the next election for the 16th Lok Sabha in India. Voting will take place in all parliamentary constituencies of India to elect members of parliament in the Lok Sabha. The current 15th Lok Sabha will complete its constitutional term on May 31, 2014.
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi was also chosen to lead the Bharatiya Janata Party's campaign after a party conclave in Goa. This came amid controversy Lal Krishna Advani opposed the decision and resigned from his party posts, only to later rescind his resignation. Murli Manohar Joshi and Sushma Swaraj were part of Team 2014, under Modi's leadership, for the campaign. Rajnath Singh, Atal Behari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani - who had opposed the decision to name Modi in favour of himself - would be the mentors for the BJP's campaign. A 12-member committee,[who?] which will be chaired by Modi, was appointed at the Goa conclave and will have other BJP stalwarts on its committee: M. Venkaiah Naidu, Nitin Gadkari, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Chattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh and Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar. Twenty sub-committees will assist the main committee with focus on such aspects of electioneering, including rallies, publicity, manifesto, social media, courting first time voters, "crowd sourcing" and a "charge-sheet" against the UPA. general secretary Ananth Kumar said: "All the sub-committees will be steered under the leadership of Narendra Modi...The party has given Modi the responsibility of 2014 elections...Under his leadership the whole campaign will move forward," BJP general secretary Ananth Kumar said. Gadkari was also tasked with paying "special attention" to Delhi for its forthcoming assembly election; he will be assisted by Amritsar MP Navjot Singh Sidhu.
The Indian National Congress had announced, on the fourth anniversary of the second United Progressive Alliance government, that its campaign for the election would be led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, INC chairperson Sonia Gandhi and general secretary Rahul Gandhi. Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari said: "The government and the party have decided while Singh is the PM and Sonia is the Congress chief, Rahul Gandhi has energised the party cadre. So the 2014 elections would be fought under the leadership of the triumvirate." Sonia Gandhi appointed her son Rahul to head a six-member committee to formulate and implement alliances, the party manifesto and general publicity for the election.
In response to sagging opinion poll numbers for the general election, the INC sought to fast-track a decision on separating Telangana from Andhra Pradesh, create a coalition government with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and the Rashtriya Janata Dal in Jharkhand, sought to take sole credit for the Food Security Bill and table a controversial landholding farmer-friendly Land Acquisition Bill.
Rahul Gandhi criticised a UPA government ordinance that would allow convicted politicians to contest elections. "I tell you what my opinion on the ordinance is: That it is complete nonsense. It should be torn up and thrown away. That’s my opinion. The arguments that are being made in my organisation is that we need to do this because of political considerations. Everybody does this."
National Democratic Alliance partner, Janata Dal (United) expressed its reservation about having Modi as the prime ministerial candidate. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar also unilaterally broke relations with the BJP by ejecting 11 BJP ministers, including his deputy Sushil Kumar Modi on 16 June 2013 (this recalls the break in Orissa between the BJP and the BJD before the 2009 election, which occurred at the same as the provincial election, and the BJP lost its presence there). He then won a vote of confidence in the Bihar Vidhan Sabha and said that "the BJP says this is what party workers want, but the sentiment of party cadres does not reflect that of the country." And in reference to his opposition previously elucidated against Modi he said: "In 2005, for the state election, did an outsider come here (in Bihar)? Was that person allowed here in 2009 for the national election campaign?" In the ensuing war of words between the two parties, the JDU alleged that in the a Gujarat led by Modi there was conspiracy against Bihar. Bihar MLA Manjit Singh said over shouts from BJP MLAs that Modi will be PM that "a conspiracy against Bihar is being hatched in Gujarat. The timers used in Bodhgaya blasts were from Gujarat. The mid-day meal tragedy should also be probed for this Gujarat angle." Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy then called on Kumar to reconsider his decision saying "Nitish has been a respected political colleague of ours since the JP movement days in 1970s....his decision to part ways with the BJP-led NDA has come as a surprise to me. The people want Modi to become the next prime minister to provide strong leadership and good government in the country." He also called on Kumar to return to the NDA in order to ensure the defeat of the INC in the election. At a rally in Bihar, Modi took a veiled attack on Kumar without using his name in saying that "there is a 1974-like anti-Congress wave prevailing in the country now. The mandate of the people of Bihar was for NDA. Like then (in 1974), those who betrayed the people's mandate in Bihar will be taught a lesson."Bihar BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha then said that Kumar is "prime ministerial material. He is among the select few good and successful chief ministers in the country today," he clarified that Kumar was just one of the leaders qualified. "At the end of the day one can become PM only after being chosen by the party and numbers in the elections."
Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Lalu Prasad Yadav said of the BJP's ruling chances that "Modi and Advani can never become the prime minister in their lifetime. Secular forces in this country would never allow the saffron outfit to come to power." In relation to the INC's Rahul Gandhi he said that Gandhi wants to bring change to the country; he added in relation to Digvijay Singh that he was a "good man."
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