Producer: Peuli Bakshi
India will vote to elect representatives from 543 constituencies in the Lok Sabha elections from April 19 to June 1.
The Election Commission of India on Saturday announced that the elections will be held in seven phases, with first on April 19, second on April 26, third on May 7, fourth on May 13, fifth on May 20, sixth on May 25 and seventh on June 1.
The election in Arunachal Pradesh, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Andhra Pradesh, Chandigarh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, Delhi, Goa, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Kerala, Lakshadweep, Ladakh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Punjab, Sikkim, Puducherry, Telangana and Tamil Nadu will be held on a single-phase basis.
The election in Karnataka, Manipur, Rajasthan, Tripura will take place in 2 phases. Assam, Chhattisgarh will have 3-phase polling.
The election in Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha will take place in 4 phases. Maharashtra, Jammu and Kashmir will have 5-phase polling.
Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal will have their polling in the highest no of phases- 7. That makes it for 36 states and union territories.
The vote counting for all the states will be done on the same day – June 4 (Tuesday).
The Chief Election Commissioner, Rajiv Kumar, said that there 96.8 crore registered voters, of which 1.82 crore are first-timers and 21 crore young voters in the age group of 20 to 29 years.
As per the CEC, there will be at least 10.5 lakh polling stations in 2024, as compared to 10 lakh in 2019. So, about 97 crore people are eligible to vote this time.
In the 2019 general elections, the BJP had won 303 seats while the Congress with 52 seats, could not claim the position of leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha.
The 2024 polls are being seen as a do-or-die battle for the opposition I.N.D.I.A. (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) bloc, formed of 28 parties.