<P> In 1999, National Democratic Alliance led by the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power and became the first coalition government to complete the full term . For the next decade, congress led coalition United Progressive Alliance formed the government under Manmohan Singh . In the recent elections held in 2014, the National Democratic Alliance led by the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power with Bharatiya Janata Party achieving a simple majority on its own by securing 282 seats . Narendra Modi, the BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate, is now serving his first term as the Prime Minister of India . </P> <P> While parties like the Telugu Desam Party, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam have traditionally been strong regional contenders, the 1990s saw the emergence of other regional players such as Indian National Lok Dal, Shiromani Akali Dal, Shiv Sena, Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and Janata Dal . These parties are traditionally based on regional aspirations like Telangana Rashtra Samithi and Shiv Sena or strongly influenced by caste considerations like Bahujan Samaj Party which claims to represent the Dalits . </P> <P> The Election Commission of India is an autonomous, constitutionally established federal authority responsible for administering all the electoral processes in the Republic of India . Under the supervision of the commission, free and fair elections have been held in India at regular intervals as per the principles enshrined in the Constitution . The Election Commission has the power of superintendence, direction and control of all elections to the Parliament of India and the state legislatures and of elections to the office of the President of India and the Vice-President of India . </P> <P> Elections are conducted according to the constitutional provisions, supplemented by laws made by Parliament . The major laws are Representation of the People Act, 1950, which mainly deals with the preparation and revision of electoral rolls, the Representation of the People Act, 1951 which deals, in detail, with all aspects of conduct of elections and post election disputes . The Supreme Court of India has held that where the enacted laws are silent or make insufficient provision to deal with a given situation in the conduct of elections, the Election Commission has the residuary powers under the Constitution to act in an appropriate manner . Originally the commission had only a single Chief Election Commissioner . Two additional Commissioners were appointed to the commission for the first time on 16 October 1989, but they had a very short tenure until 1 January 1990 . The Election Commissioner Amendment Act, 1993 made the Election Commission a multi-member body . Later, on 1 October 1993, two additional Election Commissioners were appointed . The concept of a multi-member Commission has been in operation since then, with decision - making power by majority vote . </P>

General elections in india is based on the principle of