Lok Sabha elections: India to vote from April 19 in 7 phases; results on June 4

The 2024 Lok Sabha elections will be held from April 19 to June 1 in seven phases, the Election Commission of India announced on Saturday. The results will be declared on June 4.

With this, the Model Code of Conduct will now come into effect.

The voting for the first phase will be held on April 19, second phase on April 26, third phase on May 7, fourth phase on May 13, fifth phase on May 20, sixth phase on May 25, and the seventh phase on June 1.

Simultaneous election for Lok Sabha and assembly will be held in four states -- Sikkim, Odisha, Arunachal Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh.  Jammu and Kashmir, which has been under President's Rule since 2018, was not on the list.  The assembly polls for Andhra Pradesh will be on May 13, Sikkim on April 19, Arunachal Pradesh on April 19, and Odisha will be held on May 13. 

By-elections will also be held for 26 assembly seats across multiple states, including Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu.

Around 97 crore people are eligible to vote in the upcoming polls.

Lok Sabha Election 2024 Date 19 April 2024:

• Phase 1- April 19, 2024

• Phase 2- 26 April 2024

• Phase 3-7 May 2024

• Phase 4 - 13 May 2024

• Phase 5 - 20 May 2024

• Phase 6 - 25 May 2024

• Phase 7 - 1 June 2024

• Counting on June 4

 

In 2019, the election was announced on March 10 and held in seven phases.  The counting of the votes was done on May 23.

During the conference, CEC Rajiv Kumar said that the team is complete with the appointment of two ECs.

"After the recent appointment of two ECs, the team is now complete. We are fully prepared for the biggest festival of Indian democracy," said Kumar.

"Celebrating Inclusivity! Growth in voter categories, especially women, youth & PwDs reflects ECI commitment to inclusive rolls. With ~82 lakhs PwDs, 2.2 lakh 100+ & 48k Third gender voters, our rolls reflect a diverse mosaic of electorate," said CEC.

Kumar said that for the upcoming elections, there are four problems that stands in front of EC -- muscle, money, misinformation and excessive violations.

States have been empowered to take down social media posts to tackle fake news under section 69, 79 of IT Act, Kumar added.

BJP's 400 seats aim

The BJP-led NDA government is hoping to clinch a third term, while the Opposition is trying to capture the nation's pulse to make some breakthrough.

In the 2019 polls, the BJP won 303 seats while the Congress got 52 seats. Since the start of year, PM Narendra Modi has claimed that NDA is expected to break all records when it comes to vote share.

On the eve of the announcement of the upcoming general elections, PM Modi on Friday asserted that the “lotus is going to bloom”, and the BJP-led NDA would secure power at the Centre by surpassing previous records in the upcoming polls. 

While addressing a rally in Kerala, PM Modi urged voters to convert their "substantial support" into votes so that the BJP wins seats in the double digits in the state.