Candidate India

The 2014 Indian election was a milestone in the countrys electoral, political and social history. It was the first time in thirty years that a single party won a majority in the lower house. Modi ran a quasi-presidential campaign to win a mandate essentially for himself. His campaign was innovative and energetic, using technology - especially television and social media, data, and communication mechanisms - and focused on messaging in a manner that India had never seen before. It drew lessons from Tony Blairs successful election campaign of 1997 as well as from Barack Obamas campaign of 2008. It also deftly exploited new developments in Indian society and bet on social and economic changes in India, seeking to address these changes.
Modi targeted younger voters, calculating that the one million young people being added to the work force every month were seeking better livelihoods and were more concerned with macroeconomic issues than identity.
The urban economy, 65 per cent of theGDP, has made India much more city-centric, changing traditional modes of mobilisation and fuelling economic aspirations. Media and technology are crafting a new concept of Indian nationhood that is propelling unifying energies from the bottom of the pyramid rather than from the elite at the top.
All of these forces, intersecting with a greater Indian outreach to the world, tapping into the energies and opportunities of globalisation, have led to an Indian generation that is confident, sometimes even cocky, but that much more eager to engage with the world on its own terms.
In his first year in office, Prime Minister Modi has sought to respond to these forces and constituencies and has built his policies in keeping with the framework in which he was elected to office. He has inaugurated 21st century India as much as 21st century India has established him as its leader.
Candidate India examines how Modi won the election, and analyses the new India that now exists independent of Modi.