Indian elections have a tendency to throw up surprise results, proving all political pundits and experts wrong. The average voter, even if illiterate and living in a remote village, seemingly cut off from the rest of the country or the world has traditionally shown his wisdom by sending crystal clear messages to the leaders, just as his counterparts in the developed world do.

Exactly five years after he was first sworn in the Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh was sworn in for the second term on May 22, 2009, hence completing the cycle of elections for Lok Sabha or the lower house of the Indian Parliament, a process that lasted nearly three months, involved 740 million voters and cost 100 billion rupees (1.5 billion euros).

The results for 2009 kept to the rule of catching everyone, including the political parties, totally by surprise. The Congress, with 206 seats, was at its highest level since the 1991 elections and together with its alliance partners, it managed to move clearly ahead of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which lost 22 seats to end at the lowest level since 1996. Another big surprise was the complete rout of the Left parties in their turf states of Kerala and West Bengal and the Left alliance managed barely 24 seats, losing 36.