India starts voting a fortnight from today

Irrespective of which party fares how, it is clear that the most important personality of this election is Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who is the BJP's prime ministerial candidate.

"This will be a personality-oriented election," BJP's Goel said.

In contrast to Modi, the Congress - India's oldest political party - does not have a prime ministerial candidate.

Economist-turned-politician Manmohan Singh, the prime minister 10 long years, will bow out after this election. Congress president Sonia Gandhi has health issues. Her son and party vice president Rahul Gandhi does not appear ready, though he has been projected as a presumptive prime ministerial candidate in the party's campaign ads.

It will be most likely AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal who will take on Modi when the latter contests from the Hindu holy city of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, besides Vadodara in his own Gujarat.

India held its first parliamentary election in 1952, only four years after the British colonial rule ended. Jawaharlal Nehru was the first prime minister, a post he held for a record 17 long years.