The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Saturday announced the much-awaited schedule of Lok Sabha election 2024.
Chief Election Commission (CEC) Rajiv Kumar flanked by two new election commissioners—Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Sandhu on Saturday said the election will be held in seven phases between April 19 and June 1 while the counting will take place on June 4.
As per the announcement, the phase 1 polling will be held on April 19, the second phase on April 26, the third phase on May 7, the fourth phase on May 13, the fifth phase on May 20, the sixth phase on May 25 and the last phase on June 1.
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Besides, CEC Kumar said this time India has registered nearly 97 crore voters. It has also been told that 1.5 crore polling officials will be deployed on polling duty at 10.5 lakh polling stations across the country.
“A mammoth exercise in democracy which is the world’s largest electoral movement of man and material,” EC said.
Kumar said 55 lakh EVMs (electronic voting machines) have been deployed for the elections in the country.
He also announced that EC has successfully conducted 17 general elections, 400 plus state elections, 16 Presidential and Vice-Presidential elections.
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He termed it as a reflective of people’s trust in the Commission.
He said there are 96.8 crore total electors in the country, out of which 49.7 crore are male voters, 47.1 crore are female voters.
He also said there are 1.8 crore first time voters who are in the age group of 18-19 in the country. Besides, he said there are 88.4 lakh PwD (specially-abled) voters and 82 lakh voters who are in the age category of 85 plus in the country.
CEC Kumar also said there are 48000 transgender voters in the country. While there are 19.74 crore young voters who are in the age group of 20-29 in the country.
Besides, he said there are 19.1 lakhs service electors in the country. There are also 2.18 lakhs centenarians in the country, he said.
He also said growing gender ratio in electoral rolls is a testament to women celebrating their right to vote. He said there are 12 States/UTs in the country who boast an elector gender ratio of over 1000. He added over 85 lakh first-time women voters will participate in their year’s election.
