India's Melbourne-based intelligentsia gathered at the Australia India Institute today to watch the live feed of the count and dissect the Narendra Modi landslide.

Despite the sensitivities of the powderkeg region, foreign policy rarely factors in the domestic rhetoric of Indian political campaigns. Nirupama Subramanian explores cross-border relationships. 

Image: Muhammad Ali Jinnah, founder of Pakistan, with Mahatma Gandhi, Bombay, 1944.

The polls open next week on the epic five-week Indian Election 2014. (From left) Melbourne University's Dr Pradeep Taneja, Australia India Institute (AII) Director Amitabh Mattoo and eminent journalist and AII Fellow Nirupama Subramanian sum up the form of the candidates and the campaign.

Narendra Modi has never been part of India's cliquish political culture. But his BJP's aggressive, unwavering, focused strategy has capitalised on a dynasty's complacency and a nation's hopes. By Pradeep Taneja.

Many dark and murky corners remain in Indian politics, but 'The Common Man's Party' - AAP - has changed the political landscape, regardless of how it fares in the final count. 

Joy Purkayastha

The monumental scale of the BJP's "Modi-slide" - and the humiliation of the ruling Congress party - is explicit in contemplating the breakdown of seats in the next Indian Parliament.