The Election Commission of India has announced the dates for the 2024 Lok Sabha election. The poll panel, headed by Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, has also announced the schedule for four State Assembly elections. The elections will commence on April 19 and will continue till June 1. The counting will be held on June 4. Notably, the election will be held in seven phases.
The second phase of Lok Sabha polls will be on April 26, and the third phase is on May 7. Meanwhile, phase 4 voting is on May 13, and phase 5 will be held on May 20. The phase 6 voting will be on May 25, and the final phase of voting is on June 1. It is considered as the most notable parliamentary polls in the history as the ruling BJP is seeking a third consecutive term.
Schedule :General Election to Lok Sabha 2024#ECI #GeneralElections2024 pic.twitter.com/2fjMIsxIw3
— Election Commission of India (@ECISVEEP) March 16, 2024
Meanwhile, the assembly elections will be held in Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, and Odisha. Andhra Pradesh will head to the polls on May 13. Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim will be having state assembly elections on April 19. The voting process in Odisha will be in two phases on May 13 and May 20. The Election Commission announced that by-elections for 26 Assembly seats will also be conducted along with the Lok Sabha elections.
During the press conference, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said that there are 97 crore registered voters in the country. Among the registered voters, 49.7 crore are male voters, and there are 47.1 crore women voters. Notably, there are 1.8 crore first-time voters this time in India. There are 82 lakh voter who are 85+ years old and 48,000 transgender voters.
Last time, the Lok Sabha polls were announced on March 10, 2019. The voting was held in seven phases, beginning April 11 to May 19. The counting of votes was on May 23.
At the same time, various political parties have already started announcing their candidates for the Lok Sabha polls. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has so far released two lists featuring 267 candidates. At the same time, Congress has announced 82 candidates for the Lok Sabha polls.