As the world’s largest democratic exercise gets under way with 814.5 million voters set to choose 543 representatives to the Lok Sabha, The Hindu will be publishing from today specially designed election pages bringing to the readers this political festival in all its richness and colour.
The Hindu’s wide network of correspondents through the country will focus on broader national themes and issues as well as factors at work at the level of individual constituencies, on personalities, on the messages political leaders and candidates seek to convey to their specific constituencies, momentous happenings and the lighter moments, campaign styles and public responses, assessments of candidates and the shifting fortunes of parties. Since 2009, over 100 million new voters have been enrolled; how exactly will they change the electoral outcome? How do different religious, caste and regional groups see the parties and candidates?
What are the issues that are dominating the campaign? The three special election pages will each focus on the state, the region and on the nation as a whole, and in addition the regular news pages will also carry election-related reports. Our effort, we hope, will let the readers gain a sense of what is happening on the ground during the six-week-long campaign and polling.
Editor-in-Chief
