What this game is

MODIPOLY Lok Sabha Edition is a negotiation game for seven players. Nobody buys an asset with money alone. To take an airport, a port, a news channel or the Bullet Train you need votes, and the votes belong to the other players. If you cannot gather them, the asset goes to a sealed-bid auction that the Prime Minister runs. Meanwhile the PM issues ordinances from the PM CARES deck, the Godi Media deck rewrites reality, and five meters track what is left of the Republic.

Setup

1. Deal the seven role cards. With fewer players, drop roles in this order: Government Employee, Devoted Citizen, CPI(M). Four is the minimum.
2. The Treasury (the bank) starts with ₹10,000cr. The PM holds the Treasury cash box but cannot spend it on themself except through an ordinance or a Godi Media card that says so.
3. Starting cash: Congress ₹5,000cr · CPI(M) ₹1,000cr · Oligarch ₹500cr · Liberal Citizen ₹300cr · Devoted Citizen ₹300cr · Government Employee ₹300cr · PM ₹0.
4. Starting vote tokens: PM 20, every other player 10. Keep them in front of you where everyone can count them.
5. Set the meters on the board: Constitution 10, Opposition Unity 4, Public Anger 0, Protest 0, Distraction 0. Patronage: ON.
6. Shuffle the PM CARES 56" deck (15 ordinances) and the Godi Media deck (16 news cards). Everyone starts on Parliament. The PM rolls first, then play goes clockwise.

Money and the Treasury

• All payments for assets, taxes and fines go to the Treasury. Levies go to the asset's owner.
• Oligarch loans. Up to three times per game the Oligarch may borrow up to 90% of a bid from the Treasury. Interest is 10% of the loan each time the Oligarch passes Parliament. If the Oligarch cannot pay, the loan becomes a Non-Performing Asset: the Treasury writes it off, the Constitution does not notice, and Public Anger +1.
• Citizens and the Government Employee may borrow from the Treasury only against security: one asset they own, for its loan security value on the deed. The asset earns no levy until the loan is repaid with 10% interest. If the loan is still unpaid when the game ends, the asset is auctioned.
• Congress and CPI(M) cannot borrow. They live on their starting funds, levies and whatever they are paid for votes.
• The PM cannot borrow and has no salary. The PM must gather funds from the other players by selling votes, selling ordinances, accepting electoral bonds, or threatening. See "Staying in power".

Your turn

1. Roll two dice and move clockwise. Doubles roll again; three doubles send you to Tihar, unless you are the PM or a BJP member.
2. Resolve the space: acquire or pay a levy on an asset, pay GST, draw a card, or follow a corner.
3. At any point in your turn you may negotiate: cash, votes, favours and promises. Only deals about the current acquisition vote are binding. Everything else is politics. Assets themselves change hands only by sealed bid; see "Selling anything".

Vote tokens

• Votes are tokens you hold. The PM starts with 20 and every other player with 10.
• Each time you pass Parliament you gain 2 vote tokens. The PM gains 5.
• Vote tokens are spent when you cast them to acquire an asset. Spent tokens go back in the box. Any player may cast any number of their tokens on any asset.
• You may give, sell or trade vote tokens to any player at any time, for cash, favours or promises. This is how the PM usually pays the bills.
• A player in Tihar cannot cast, give or receive vote tokens. A BJP member casts their tokens however the PM says.
• Vote tokens are not used in confidence votes, which use fixed weights. See "Staying in power".

Acquiring an asset by votes

The board shows how many votes each asset needs. When you land on an unowned asset you may call a vote.

1. Announce that you want the asset. Say what you will pay each player for their votes, in cash or in vote tokens.
2. Going clockwise, every player says how many vote tokens they will cast for you, if any. You cast your own tokens the same way.
3. If the tokens cast reach the number needed, you acquire the asset. All cast tokens are spent. Pay the base price on the deed to the Treasury and any bribes you promised. Take the deed.
4. If the tokens cast fall short, they go back to their owners and the asset goes to sealed-bid auction at once.

Sealed-bid auction ("closed bond")

1. The Oligarch, the Liberal Citizen, the Devoted Citizen and the Government Employee may bid. Congress and CPI(M) may not; they are parties, not buyers. The PM may not bid; the PM runs it.
2. Each bidder writes the amount they can invest on a slip, folds it, and hands it to the PM. Bids below the deed's minimum sealed bid are void. The Oligarch may count a Treasury loan toward the bid.
3. The PM opens the slips in private and announces the winner. The PM is not required to show the slips. If the PM owns at least one Godi Media channel, the PM may announce whoever they like. The channel said so.
4. The winner pays the announced amount to the seller, which is the Treasury for an unowned asset, and takes the deed. If nobody bids, the asset stays where it was.

Selling anything

There are no private sales. Any time an asset changes hands, whether the Treasury is selling, a player wants out, or a bankrupt player's holdings are being cleared, it is a sealed-bid auction run by the PM, exactly as above. The seller announces the sale on their turn and may set a reserve no lower than the deed's minimum bid. The winning amount goes to the seller. The PM announces the winner, and the PM is still not required to show the slips.

Levies

• Land on another player's asset and pay the owner a levy of 10% of the base price on its deed. Own every asset in a sector and all its levies double. Assets have no houses.
• The PM pays no levy on assets owned by the Devoted Citizen. The Devoted Citizen pays no levy on assets owned by the PM. Family.
• Godi Media sector: each channel you own adds +1 Distraction every time you pass Parliament. Own all four and you, not the PM, read the Godi Media cards and choose their targets.
• EVM: whoever owns the EVM breaks ties in every vote, including the confidence vote.

Parliament (GO)

Each time you pass Parliament, collect your salary from the Treasury: Oligarch ₹500cr (dividends), Congress ₹300cr, Government Employee ₹200cr, CPI(M) ₹150cr, each Citizen ₹150cr. The PM collects nothing and must instead pay ₹300cr coalition maintenance into the Treasury.

Every player also gains 2 vote tokens each time they pass Parliament. The PM gains 5.

Staying in power

• If the PM cannot pay coalition maintenance, or any other bill, a confidence vote is held immediately. If the PM survives, the unpaid amount is written off. Votes: Congress 3, Oligarch 2, PM 1, CPI(M) 1, Liberal Citizen 1, Devoted Citizen 1 (always with the PM), Government Employee 1. The EVM owner breaks ties.
• Opposition votes only count in full if Opposition Unity is 5 or more. Below 5, Congress and CPI(M) votes count half, rounded down. A party that has joined the BJP is no longer opposition and counts in full.
• If the PM loses, the government collapses and a replacement vote follows: Congress and CPI(M) are candidates, and the Oligarch may nominate any other player. Same voting weights. The winner becomes PM, keeps their cash and assets, and inherits the PM's debts. The old PM becomes an ordinary Devoted Citizen with ₹300cr. The old Devoted Citizen stays devoted; devotion does not transfer.
• A PM who goes bankrupt triggers the same collapse at once.

The five meters

Starts at 10. Most ordinances cost 1. If it reaches 0 the game ends immediately: the PM wins, the Devoted Citizen wins with them and does not notice that nothing changed for them.

Rises with GST, bulldozers, demonetisation and hospital bills. Cannot rise while Distraction is 5 or more. At the final election, Anger of 7 or more throws the government out.

CPI(M) or the Liberal Citizen landing on Tihar's "just visiting" strip adds 1. At 8 the PM cannot issue ordinances. At 10 there is a Bharat Bandh: the government collapses and a replacement vote follows.

Starts at 4. Congress and CPI(M) voting the same way on an acquisition adds 1. Godi Media cards and bankruptcies cut it. Below 5 the opposition's votes count half in confidence votes.

Raised by Godi Media channels and cards. While it is 5 or more, Public Anger cannot rise. Drops by 1 every time the PM passes Parliament, because even bhakts get bored.

Patronage is a switch, not a meter. While it is ON the Government Employee cannot be investigated or sent to Tihar and collects 10% of every levy paid to the Treasury by the Oligarch. It switches OFF when the Government Employee goes bankrupt or an ordinance says so.

Tihar Jail and UAPA

• You go to Tihar from the RSS-BJP corner (if you refuse to join), from a card, or from three doubles. In Tihar you collect levies but cannot vote, bid or trade.
• Get out by paying ₹100cr bail to the Treasury, rolling doubles within three turns, or joining the BJP.
• Join BJP: pay ₹200cr to the PM. All your cases close, you leave Tihar, and from now on your votes are always pledged with the PM. You never go to Tihar again. Your own win condition is replaced by "wins when the PM wins". Congress and CPI(M) may join too. It is called Operation Lotus and it is very popular.
• The PM and the Devoted Citizen never go to Tihar. Three doubles just end their turn.

The corners

• Parliament: salaries and coalition maintenance, above.
• Tihar Jail / Protest: just visiting. CPI(M) or the Liberal Citizen landing here add Protest +1.
• Mann Ki Baat: free parking. Nothing happens, but everyone has to listen. Distraction +1.
• RSS-BJP: Join or UAPA. Choose: pay ₹200cr to the PM and join the BJP, or go to Tihar under UAPA. The PM and Devoted Citizen landing here collect ₹50cr from every other player as a shakha donation.

GST Collection

Pay 18% of your cash to the Treasury, minimum ₹100cr. The Oligarch pays nothing and claims input tax credit. Public Anger +1 each time a Citizen pays.

PM CARES 56" ordinances

When any player lands on PM CARES 56", the PM draws an ordinance. The PM may enact it at once, hold it (up to two in hand), or sell it unenacted to another player who may enact it on their own turn as if they were the PM. Enacting costs Constitution −1 unless the card says otherwise. Ordinances are not allowed while Protest is 8 or more.

Godi Media news

When any player lands on DEMOCRACY, the PM draws and reads a Godi Media card aloud, in their best anchor voice. Where a card says "a player of the PM's choice", the PM chooses. Cards marked DISTRACTION would hurt the PM: while the Devoted Citizen is solvent, the Devoted Citizen pays or suffers the effect instead and calls it fake news. If a player owns all four channels, that player reads and targets instead of the PM.

Bankruptcy and role consequences

A player who cannot pay what they owe after borrowing against security is bankrupt. Their assets are auctioned one by one by sealed bid and the proceeds go to the creditor; anything left over goes to the Treasury. The player stays in the game as a spectator with a vote in confidence votes, because this is still a democracy, technically. Each role's collapse changes the game:

End of the game and how to win

The game ends when the PM has passed Parliament five times (one full term), or earlier if the Constitution reaches 0 or Protest reaches 10. At the end of the term a final election is held: if Public Anger is 7 or more, the government is voted out and the replacement vote picks the new PM; otherwise the PM is re-elected.

Several roles can win together. Usually the Oligarch is one of them.

MODIPOLY is political satire. The vote weights are a game design, not a survey. Everything else is a joke, including the Constitution meter.