The Greatest Show on Earth was not the election of Barack Obama in 2008 but the 2014 General Elections of India. When the world’s largest democracy goes to polls (this year it was 67 percent turnout), it is a spectacle of myriad emotions, and brings to fore the complete picture of geographically ‘diverse’ and ethnically ‘divided’ India. These pictures show the magnitude of the 16th Lok Sabha Elections in India, which brought to power the BJP and its leader, Narendra Modi.
1. Behind the veil:
2. A Muslim voter exercising her right:
3. Modi flies high above the skies of Varanasi:
4. Men stand before a campaign poster of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and his mother, Sonia Gandhi:
5. Supporters of Aam Aadmi Party:
6. A campaign poster of Narendra Modi:
7. A sea of supporters of BJP leader Narendra Modi in Varanasi:
8. Anxious faces?
9. Modi during the campaign phase:
10. Gathering storm:
11. Buddhist monks wait outside a polling station near the Hemis Monastery, in Hemis, Ladakh:
12. Ladakhis inside a polling booth:
13. Security and voters in Ladakh:
14. Security personnel:
15. More personnel:
16. To see Modi speak near Lucknow:
17. In Punjab:
18. Supporters of Modi in Punjab:
19. Transgender Candidate Hijra Guru Baseer Kinnar aka Kamala Kinnar campaigning in Varanasi:
20. AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal is all smiles:
21. Rahul Gandhi’s supporters in Mumbai:
22. A supporter of Rahul Gandhi:
23. Women wait to cast their votes in Jodhpur, Rajasthan:
24. At a polling station in Rajasthan:
25. Voting in Rajasthan:
26. A polling centre in Jodhpur:
27. Congress supporters in New Delhi:
Image courtesy: Kevin Frayer—Getty Images and Time.
