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Lok Sabha poll dates were announced on Saturday the 16th of March 2024.

Polls will be held in seven phases beginning from 19th April and will culminate on 01 June.State assembly elections for Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh will also be held along with the Lok Sabha polls.

The Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar while addressing the media stated that 97 crores voters have been registered for the polls.

The term of 17th Lok Sabha is due to expire on 16th June, 2024.  Article 324 of the Constitution of India bestows the relevant powers, duties and functions upon the Election Commission of India (hereinafter ECI), while Article 83(2) of the Constitution of India and Section 14 of the Representation of the People Act-1951 provides for the conduct of the elections to constitute a new Lok Sabha before the expiry of its current term

General Elections to Lok Sabha in India is considered to be the biggest man management exercise in the world. It involves a mammoth task to mobilize election machinery of more than 12 million officials for this exercise.

The total electorate in the country as per finally published Electoral rolls with reference to 01.01.2024 as the qualifying date is 968.8 million compared to 896 million in 2019. This marks an increase of more than 72.8 million electors. Over 18.4 million electors are in 18-19 years age group. Electors in the age group of 18-19 years constitute 1.89% of total electors.

The number of electors enrolled as “Third Gender” (written as TG) is 48,044. Parliament amended the Representation of the People Act, 1950, allowing enrollment of Indian citizens living overseas as electors. 1,18,439 overseas electors have been enrolled in the current electoral rolls.

There are 19,08,194 service electors in the electoral rolls. There is a total of 88,35,449 PwD all over the country in which there exist 52,65,076 male PwD electors, 35,69,933 female PwD electors and 440 Third Gender PwD electors. As on 10th March, 2024, there is a total of 81,87,999 Senior Citizen electors above 85 years and 2,18,442 electors above 100 years.

As per the poll schedule, election to Andhra Pradesh assembly will be held on May 13, 2024.

In Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim, assembly elections will be held on April 19. Elections to Odisha legislative assembly will take place in four phases on May 13, May 20, May 25 and June 1.
All votes will be counted on June 4, 2024.

While the first phase of Lok Sabha election will be held on April 19, the last phase of the election will take place on June 1.

The first phase of Lok Sabha election would cover 102 parliamentary constituencies spread across 21 states and Union Territories (UTs). In the second phase on April 26, a total of 89 parliamentary constituencies across 13 states will go to polls.

The third, fourth and fifth phase of elections will be held on May 7, May 13 and May 20 respectively. In these phases, 239 parliamentary constituencies will be covered.

The sixth and seventh phase would take place on May 25 and June 1 covering 114 Lok Sabha seats.

Polling in the key state of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal will take place in seven phases. Elections in Jammu and Kashmir will be held in five phases.

There are 543 parliamentary constituencies in total out of which 84 are reserved for SCs and 47 for STs.

With the announcement of the poll dates, the model code of conduct has come into force with immediate effect.

There shall be a maximum of 1500 electors in a polling station.

There is 1.19% increase in the number of Polling Stations in the States/UTs as compared with the Number of Polling Stations in 2019.  The total number of polling station countrywide is 10,48,202.