FES INDIA PAPER New Delhi, April, 2014 THE 16 th GENERAL ELECTION A Sizeable Section Of Indian Voters In A Mood For ‘High Risk, High Returns’ BY ANAND AGASHE Some 814 million voters will make the 16 th parliamentary elections in India the largest democratic exercise in the world. The counting of votes will take place on May 16, after which the process of forming the new government will begin and which may entail coalitional negotiations between national and regional parties. Evidence from opinion polls suggests that the Congress Party will register a decline in its seats this time, with the BJP projected to rise to new heights. Most observers see Narendra Modi as the most likely person to become the new prime minister of India. The question is this: can the‘Gujarat Development Model’ be a blueprint for the whole country? What difference will the arrival of a new political formation like the Aam Aadmi Party make to Indian politics? Will it make a meaningful contribution towards the transformation of the political-economic system in the country by steering it away from the endemic corruption that has come to mark it and by ensuring that the focus shifts to more substantive issues and to good governance? The author analyses India’s contemporary political landscape ahead of the elections and provides the reader with various possible scenarios that could emerge after the vote counting exercise has concluded.