Conditions Before General Election

When the country went to the general elections in April– May 2014, much of the positive achievements of the UPA in its second term was relegated to the background, while the corruption allegations remained in most people’s minds. The rural sector faced problems. Farmers committed suicide on a large scale mainly due to indebtedness, crop failure, drought, and socio-economic factors. Farmer distress did not seem to have come down even though the UPA government in 2008 had announced a loan waiver of

` 70,000 crore. The UPA government rolled out several socio-economic programmes but their implementation was poor in most cases.

There was also dissatisfaction on a more general level. Common people were hit by price rise and unemployment, not to say lack of development. There was what analysts called ‘a policy paralysis’ in the second term of the UPA that led to stagnation on the development front, and many progressive economic ideas remained on paper. The fiscal deficit and a sharp downslide of the rupee led to instability in the economy.

It did not seem as if the UPA was coming back to power in 2014.