Bikram Viohra

1. The first phase gets the best of the excitement when memory is fresh and the manifestos are still recalled. The fear of inertia and public fatigue is very real indeed.

2. With no canvassing permitted in the interim, the 9th phase states face a blur in the lines and end up like the exhausted rear guard of an army in retreat.

3. India’s invasive media, especially the regional channels can actually change the course of the elections and the electorate by projecting far more elaborate scenarios than merely limiting themselves to exit polls. They can even lie with equanimity under the licence of second guessing the poll projections. Technically this can amount to brainwashing the vote banks.

4. Security for the ballot boxes will be a logistical nightmare. Just guarding them will be a call for thousands of volunteers but who will guard the guards?

5. The chances of there being vote rigging increase exponentially. Stolen boxes, cracked open, replaced, rejigged, all these accusations will flourish.

6. Security for the candidates can be the nightmare to follow the first nightmare. Imagine several hundred potential MPs waiting 40 days for the result… they can scarcely behave with decorum in the House what can they not get up to when their ambitions are frazzled?

7. Trends can be manipulated and a tame media can be ‘used’ to give inaccurate and biased opinion. And it will, often reflecting the demands of their industrial tycoon bosses and creating illusions.

8. There is that much more opportunity for political parties to make deals, do the dirty and betray, and sell out, this then being the month of the long knives.

9. The opportunity for acts of violence and disruption increase manifold and will be seen as tempers flare and patience wears thin. This six week period will ostensibly be marked by party, communal and casteist exchanges.

10. A lameduck government at the center for such a long period will be ineffective and that leaves a huge gap in governance. If at the very beginning the UPA coalition gets the feeling it is slipping it will far too busy cleaning out its cupboard. The last time it was a 5-phase operation. This is almost double but the thinking behind it is dififcult to appreciate.