February 23: It was like a mini general election in the country in February as by-elections for the Legislative Assemblies of 7 States (Assam, Bihar, Maharashtra, Mizoram, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and West Bengal), including regular polls in Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura, were held. Photo: Ritu Raj Konwar
February 23: The Assembly by-elections for Alagpur (Assam), Kalyanpur (SC) (Bihar), Chandgad (Maharashtra) were held on February 24 and that for Chalfilh (ST) (Mizoram), Bhatpar (Uttar Pradesh), Nalhati Birbhum, English Bazar and Rejinagar (West Bengal) and Moga (Punjab) were held. Photo: Ritu Raj Konwar
February 23: In by-elections to three assembly seats in West Bengal, the Congress retained one while the Left Front and Trinamool Congress won a seat each. Congress won by-polls in Assam, and Mizoram, while its ally NCP won in Chandgad, Maharashtra. In Punjab, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh the ruling parties, SAD, JD(U) and SP won the by elections. Photo: Rohit Jain Paras
February 23: The Naga People’s Front (NPF) swept the polls in Nagaland managing to secure the people’s mandate for a third successive term by winning an absolute majority of seats in the 59-seated Assembly. In its 50-year history, Nagaland has never elected a woman to the Assembly. Neiphiu Rio became the chief minister for the third time. Photo: PTI
February 23: In Meghalaya, the Congress emerged as the single largest party, two short of a majority, with 29 seats in a 60-member Assembly. With the "unconditional support" from 8 independent MLAs and 2 NCP MLAs, Mukul Sangma became the chief minister for the second time. Photo: Ritu Raj Konwar
February 23: The nation's 'poorest' chief minister Manik Sarkar, who has been Tripura's CM since 1998, has extended his reign for another 5 years as the Left Front won a fifth straight victory with a two-thirds majority. Photo: Ritu Raj Konwar
March 7: Elections were held for Karnataka’s urban local bodies comprising city corporations, city municipal councils, town municipal councils and town panchayats, two months ahead of the Assembly elections. The ruling BJP lost its traditional urban vote bank to Congress , which won 39.57 per cent of the wards. Photo: K. Murali Kumar
May 8: Karnataka witnessed a four-cornered fight Assembly poll with former CM Yeddyurappa’s Karnataka Janata Paksha challenging the BJP, Congress and JD(S). File photo of former chief minister Jagdish Shettar with his family after casting their votes. Photo: The Hindu
May 8: Voters gave the Congress an unambiguous mandate of 112 seats in the 224-seated Assembly. The ruling BJP managed to win just 40 seats, thus losing the Leader of Opposition post to JD(S). Photo: K. Gopinathan
May 8: The ambitious KJP, headed by former Karnataka chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, only managed to win 6 seats. Photo: G.P. Sampath Kumar
May 13: Siddaramaiah was sworn-in the 22nd Chief Minister of Karnataka, giving a morale boost to Congress given its dismal performance in the rest of the country. The defeat was blow to the BJP which lost its only non-Hindi state. Photo: M.A. Sriram
July 11-25: After a series of postponements, verbal exchanges between the state election commissioner and chief minister, court cases, and violence during campaigning and voting, rural polls in West Bengal were conducted in 5 phases between July 11 and 25. Mamata Banerjee, 'Didi' to her supporters swept the polls in all the three-tiers, viz., gram panchayat, panchayat samity and zilla parishad. Photo: Ashoke Chakrabarty
August 24: Just 3 months after the assembly elections, the Congress repeated the triumph in the Mandya and Bangalore Rural Lok Sabha by-elections. This time it was the JD(S) that lost its two seats. The party is now being represented by only one MP in Lok Sabha. Photo: K. Bhagya Prakash
September 13: The BJP Parliamentary Board announced that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi will be its prime ministerial candidate in the upcoming general elections. The announcement came with RSS backing but senior party leader L.K. Advani's dissidence, who skipped the meeting. Photo: A.M. Faruqui
October 4: For the first time, the Election Commission decided to provide the ‘None Of The Above’ option in EVMs. Below the name of the last candidate on the EVMs, a button for ‘None Of The Above’ option will be provided. The NOTA is seen as the first step towards electoral reforms. Photo: V. Sudershan
November-December: The polls to the Assemblies in the National Capital Territory of Delhi and Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Mizoram were held between November 11 and December 4. Counting of votes took place on December 8 for all states except Mizoram, which was conducted on December 9. Photo: Ritu Raj Konwar
December 8: Delhi sprang a surprise by throwing up a situation where no party is in a clear position to form the government on its own. The union territory for the first time witnessed a triangular electoral contest. Though the BJP became the largest party in the Assembly with 31 seats, the debutant Aam Admi Party stole the show by winning 28 seats in the 70 member Assembly. Photo: Monica Tiwari
December 8: BJP scored a landslide victory in the Rajasthan Assembly elections bagging an unprecedented 163 seats in the 200-member House. Vasundhara Raje, once again became the chief minister. Photo: PTI
December 8: The Bharatiya Janata Party scored a hat-trick of in Madhya Padesh winning 164 of the 230 seats. Chief Minister Shivraj Chouhan, who won in Budhni and Vidisha, occupied the CM’s chair for the third time. Photo: A.M.Faruqui
December 8: After a shaky start, the BJP bettered the Congress, bagging at least 49 out of the 90 seats in Chattisgarh. The Congress bagged 39, one more than its 2008 tally. It was hat-trick for Raman Singh too. 3.07 per cent of the valid votes went to NOTA in the state. Photo: Rajeev Bhatt
December 8: The ruling AIADMK retained the Yercaud (ST) constituency with its candidate, winning with over one lakh margin. Elections were necessitated after the death of MLA Perumal. AIADMK fielded his widow, Saroja. Photo: E. Lakshmi Narayanan
December 9: The Congress retained power in Mizoram with a landslide victory in the Assembly elections held on November 25. The Congress won 33 of the 40 seats. Lal Thanhawla became the chief minister for a record fifth term. Photo: Ritu Raj Konwar
December 28: Delhi Lieutenant Governer Najeeb Jung administered the oath of office and secrecy to Aam Aadmi Party convenor, Arvind Kejriwal, ending days of uncertainity as to who will head the National Capital Territory. Photo: Rajeev Bhatt
