'This election could be the beginning of new chapter in the country’s history'

About 810 million eligible voters in a 1.2 billion population can exercise their options in arguably the largest collective democratic exercise in history.

The Indian voting pool is bigger than the total populations of the United States and Western Europe combined. The counting of the votes will take place on May 16. By the evening on that day, the contours of the new Indian parliament and its party composition will emerge.

The scandal-ridden ruling coalition, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), has disappointed most Indians during its decade-long stint of misgovernance.

Politicians and officials are reckoned to have taken bribes worth between £2 billion and £8 billion during the Congress Party’s tenure.

The arrogance of Congress leaders hasn’t helped either. Rahul Gandhi (the great-grandson of Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first premier,) is currently fighting a losing war as a weak leader of a major but emaciated force. Even his historical, dynastical roots are unlikely to spare him an electoral embarrassment.

The other, most dangerous phenomenon of independent India’s political life is the criminalisation of politics.

An astonishing 30 per cent of the current parliament faces criminal charges. Judging by the new crop of candidates, it isn’t going to be much better in the new parliament. According to recent research published, almost a fifth of the candidates face criminal charges.

Narendra Modi, the prime ministerial candidate of the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP), arrives at a time when people are looking desperately for a change.

Mr Modi became an international pariah after the riots in Gujrat, his home state, in 2002 – the US denied him visas and the UK cut off all ties with him. But a decade later, this controversial politician has been reintegrated into the political mainstream.

Ever since he was named as the BJP’s candidate for Prime Minister, Modi’s election campaign has been a one-man show. Mr Modi has a record as strong chief minister of Gujarat and indeed a “strong man” reputation that many see as a welcome contrast to current Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. But Mr Modi has also been criticised for his authoritarian bent and ties to right-wing Hindu organisations.

No one can predict what kind of leader he would be, should his coalition win enough seats to form a government.

He has shown radically different faces to the world since he has become the BJP’s candidate for PM.

Mr Modi was shaped by his years working as a propagandist for RSS, a Hindu organisation, and he was widely blamed for bloody communal riots that broke out in the state of Gujarat where he governed in 2002.

Until recently, the established political parties in India considered the population gullible enough to be easily led up the garden path by mere promises.

They announced policies which they never implemented; unveiled schemes they never developed; wooed communities and castes they ignored with impunity after the elections, and eulogised their heroes whose ideologies they detested.

There are no significant differences between the BJP and Congress economic policies. The BJP would shift the emphasis from welfare schemes to asset creation and poverty reduction through deregulation-led growth. A major difference between the BJP and other parties, however, is on taxes. If voted into power, the BJP pledges radical individual and business-friendly tax changes.

During the past 66 years of India’s existence as an independent nation, it was ruled for many of them by the Congress Party, led by the Nehru/Gandhi family. Since 1991, no single political party has been able to muster a parliamentary majority on its own, leading to a series of multi-party coalition governments.

This election could a beginning of new chapter in the country’s history entitled “Narinder Modi”.

The army of Modi’s followers sincerely believe that he can lift India out of the quagmire of slovenly growth, pervasive corruption, atrophied governance, and, not least, the erosion of self-esteem and national pride.

Many media surveys indicate a trend in favour of a BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (ND) government, come June 2014, so Narendra Modi could very well be the next Prime Minister of India.

Mr Modi, a former tea vendor, propelled to the top by sheer determination and administrative acumen, says he will lead India out of the current stagnation. His performance as the chief minister of Gujarat encourages many to hope this can happen.

The election of Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister of the world’s largest democracy would conform to a global trend demonstrated during the past decade by the electoral success of the likes of Vladimir Putin in Russia, Shinzo Abe in Japan, and Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey: electorates putting their trust in leaders who preach and practice a new brand of politics that confounds, more than enrages, liberals and leftists. All of them are seen to have strong links with big business and, not least, an authoritarian attitude towards the media, civil society activists and even institutions such as parliament and judiciary.

In a tide of unprecedented change, propelled by a discredited Congress, the AAP (the newly-formed common man party) suffering from election fatigue and past its honeymoon phase, leftist parties reduced to rubble, and regional parties unable to make common cause all seems set to ensure that Modi’s bandwagon marches on.

Whether we regard the prospect with hope or trepidation, Narinder Modi – on the lines of Putin, without his self-serving socialism and secularism, but with his penchant for destroying institutions – is looking increasingly likely to call the shots from the Indian parliament after May. 16 In a relatively small state such as Gujarat, bonded by a shared language, Mr Modi’s authoritarianism has worked for him. A complex and heterogeneous union of 28 states may be another story.

Only time will tell weather he has the finesse and guile to govern and rule such a complex, multicultural democracy as India.

As featured in the Tribune Magazine.