The biggest exercise in the democratic process of free elections is coming to a close tomorrow. Spread over nearly forty days (arguably too long unnecessarily) involving hundreds of thousands polling stations and several hundreds of millions of voters, the Indian General Election is humongous in size.

The counting of all the polled votes will be completed in one day on May 23rd, thanks to the electronic voting machines used.

Social media played an important role in this election. Perhaps it diverted the focus to masala issues, driving more relevant issues out of focus. And there’s speculation that the print and visual media got influenced with money power.

Did the voters get influenced by these managed communications or did they chose to vote based on real issues! Well we will know on 23rd.

I have a feeling that the population at large exercised their franchise freely and wisely. And the power and independence of women will truly reflect in the results.

Congratulations to free India for a smooth election process in the complex and largest democracy in the world.