GENERAL elections in India began on April 19 and will end in early June. There are around 970 million votes for 543 seats in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of parliament. The competing parties are: six at the national level, 57 local parties at the state level, and 2,500 unverified smaller parties. It is a long-running election season in the world’s largest democratic country.

However, this election seems like a referendum on Narendra