Political communication through the electoral campaign in India displays use of multiple media. The 2014 general elections saw political parties conduct an aggressive virtual campaign through social and mass media matched by extensive use of traditional modes of campaigning such as rallies, foot- marches and mobilization of volunteers for door-door campaigning to court the voters, reflecting what may be called “proximity” electoral campaigning or “retail politics” (Norris 2004). The purpose of this paper is to map the contours and nature of the 2014 general election campaign in India from the perspective of the issues and techniques used by political parties and thereby suggest the non-deliberative nature of the campaign which also reinforces the divide between what Manuel Castells (2000: 446) calls the “the space of flows” and the “space of places”. Campaigning of the plebiscitary kind results in a ‘thin idea of politics’ which lacks contestation and deliberation.
