ISAS Insights

India will hold its 15th general elections in April/May 2009. The elections will take place in challenging circumstances. A variety of cross-cutting political, security, economic and sociocultural issues will influence the elections. The exercise will be impacted by multiple parties, personalities and positions from India’s vast political spectrum. As India moves into the election mode, the Institute of South Asian Studies will bring out a series of papers analysing different aspects of the forthcoming elections. These will include, among others, the key national and regional parties, and their strategies, key political personalities, and the issues that are likely to have an impact on the elections. This paper, the first in the series, provides an overview of India’s main political parties participating in the elections, along with their strategies and key leaders.