India votes in its first phase of general elections today. In the first round, 91 out of 543 Lok Sabha constituencies are in the fray.
Around 900 million voters, above 18, will be queuing up at more than a million polling stations to elect 543 representatives to the Lok Sabha, the country’s lower house of the parliament.
A total of 2,300 parties are in the fray across India’s 543 constituencies in 29 states and 7 union territories in the elections to be held in seven stages beginning today.
Voting is taking place for all the parliamentary constituencies in states including Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jammu and Kashmir, Meghalaya, Maharashtra, Sikkim, Manipur, Uttarakhand, Odisha, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland, Lakshadweep, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Telangana today.
Voting will continue till May 19. The results will be announced on May 23.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeks a second term ending the first inning. However, he is facing Rahul Gandhi, President of Indian National Congress.
A snapshot:
900 million voters will cast their vote
432 million eligible women voters
83 million new voters
15 million voters aged 18 and 19
38,000 voters form the transgender community
38 days to complete the entire process beginning today — April 11 to May 19, 2019
1.035 million polling booths across India
3.96 million electronic voting machines to be used
11 million election personnel deployed
Comment