Elections in India are known as a one-of-a-kind festival of democracy, replete with colorful pageantry, flamboyant personalities, and very large numbers. The size of the country's electorate when India heads to the polls for parliamentary elections later this spring is expected to reach nearly 800 million.

According to census data, an estimated 150 million people are eligible to vote for the first time'"a figure larger than the total number of voters that took part in the 2012 U.S. presidential elections.Elections certainly bring out the best in India's raucous democracy, but they also expose some of its blemishes.

Consider this extraordinary figure: 30 percent of members of parliament have criminal cases pending against them. And that is an increase from the previous election in 2004, when "only' 24 percent of MPs were similarly situated. In the fight to curb these figures, there have been some positive developments and valiant efforts to raise awareness.

The Supreme Court of India recently decided that sitting politicians who are convicted of criminal acts should be removed from office upon conviction'"a new practice in India. And for the first time, an anticorruption party vaulted to victory in Delhi's state assembly. These are certainly bright spots, but, if recent state elections are any indication, efforts thus far have barely scratched the surface.

Read more of Milan Vaishnav's article on Carnegie Endowment for International Peace website