Voting will take place in seven phases in three states, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Bihar. Delhi will vote on 25 May, while PM Modi’s Varanasi constituency will vote on 1 June.
The general elections for India’s 543 Lok Sabha seats will be held in seven phases between 19 April and 1 June, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar announced on Saturday. The counting will be held on 4 June, the day which will decide if Prime Minister Narendra Modi will score a hat-trick of coming to power and equal Jawaharlal Nehru’s record of three straight stints as PM.
As the CEC announced the 44-day-long election schedule to elect the 18th Lok Sabha, the Model Code of Conduct kicked in immediately. The first parliamentary election on Jammu and Kashmir’s five seats after the abrogation of Article 370 will be held in five phases, between 19 April and 20 May.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Varanasi constituency will go to election on 1 June in the 7th phase, Rahul Gandhi’s Wayanad will go to election on 26 April in the 2nd phase, Amethi and Rae Bareli will go to election on 20 May in the 5th phase and national capital Delhi will go to election on 25 May in the 6th phase.
Other high profile constituencies like Amit Shah’s Gandhinagar will go to election on 7 May, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s Lucknow seat will see voting on 20 May, Nitin Gadkari’s Nagpur seat on 19 April and Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia’s Guna seat on 7 May.
West Bengal’s Basirhat constituency, which houses the Sandeshkhali area, in news for the recent flare-up related to alleged atrocities against women and TMC MLA Shahjahan Sheikh, will elect its MP in the 7th phase of polling on 1 June.
Voting will take place in all seven phases in three states—Uttar Pradesh (80 seats), West Bengal (42) and Bihar (40). The elections will be held in five phases in Maharashtra and J&K; four phases in Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand; three phases in Chhattisgarh and Assam; two phases in Karnataka, Rajasthan, Manipur and Tripura.
Twenty-two states and UTs will see a single-phase election. These include Gujarat, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Chandigarh, Haryana and Uttarakhand, among others.
In all, 102 constituencies will go to election in the first phase on 19 April; 89 seats in the second phase on 26 April; 94 constituencies in the third phase on 7 May; 96 seats in fourth phase on 13 May; 49 seats in fifth phase on 20 May; and 57 seats each in sixth and seventh phases on 25 May and 1 June.
PM Modi welcomed the announcement of the schedule of parliamentary elections. “The biggest festival of democracy is here! EC has announced the 2024 Lok Sabha election dates. We, the BJP-NDA, are fully prepared for elections. We are going to the people on the basis of our track record of good governance and service delivery across sectors,” said the Prime Minister in a social media post.
The CEC said that the 2024 Lok Sabha elections would be conducted peacefully and the election body would not tolerate any violation of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC). “In the past 11 state polls, we’ve witnessed peaceful and violence-free elections with minimal need for repolls; moving forward,
we aim to enhance this trend,” he said.
Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate expressed shock over one seat in Manipur going to election in two phases. “This is a statement on the poor law and order situation in the state,” she said, expressing confidence that the Congress will come to power and shared the slogan, “Chaar June, Congress soon.”
The TMC described the seven-phase election in West Bengal as a failure of the Election Commission and claimed that a long election schedule would favour the BJP. Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said despite the talk about Digital India and modernity the elections were still being held in seven phases.
A total of 96.8 crore voters will be eligible to cast their vote in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the CEC said, adding that there would be 10.5 lakh polling stations and 1.5 crore polling officials and security staff will be deployed to conduct the elections in the world’s largest democracy.
“We are committed to give the nation a truly festive, democratic environment. The term of the 17th Lok Sabha is due to expire on 16th June 2024. The terms of the Legislative Assemblies of Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim are also due to expire in June 2024. Elections are due in Jammu and Kashmir,” CEC Kumar said.
Kumar said approximately 49.7 crore voters for the Lok Sabha election are male and 47.1 crore voters are women. “We have 1.8 crore first-time voters and 19.47 crore voters between the age group of 20-29 years,” he said, adding that 88.4 lakh voters are in persons with disabilities category, 2.18 lakhs are centenarians and 48,000 are transgenders.
Voters above the age of 85 years and persons with disabilities, with 40% disability can vote from home, Kumar said. Around 82 lakh voters are above the age of 85, he said.
The CEC also announced dates for Assembly elections for four states. The Assembly polls for Andhra Pradesh will be on 13 May, Sikkim on 19 April, Arunachal Pradesh on 19 April, and Odisha will be held on 13 May.
The tenure of the outgoing 17th Lok Sabha will end on 16 June. The previous parliamentary elections were held in seven phases spread over 39 days.
While the BJP is banking on development and delivery of welfare schemes as its main plank by relying on the tag line: “Modi sarkar ki guarantee”, the other issues that are likely to dominate the election discourse include CAA, Ram Mandir, abrogation of Article 370, dynastic politics, free ration, farm bills, economic growth, corruption and ED and CBI cases against leaders from non-BJP leaders.
Talking about the security deployment, he said over 2,100 general, police, and expenditure observers are being deployed for elections. They are the eyes and ears of the Commission overseeing the conduct of inducement and intimidation-free elections and a level playing field for all.
The ECI on Saturday also announced the schedule for byelection to 26 Assembly constituencies of Bihar, Haryana, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Telangana, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.
The CEC said that to curb the flow of illicit money, the poll body has held extensive reviews with enforcement agencies. “Cash movement worth around Rs 3,400 crore was restricted in the last 11 state Assembly elections in Rajasthan, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat and Tripura,” CEC Kumar said.