India, the largest democracy in the world, will hold the general elections for its 15th Lok Sabha, the supreme law making body, from April 16 to May 13, the Election Commission announced on Monday. The counting of votes after the five-phase elections will be held on May 16.
This will be an entirely new election for almost all the current MPs, as 499 constituencies of the 543-member house have been redrawn in the delimitation exercise conducted by the Commission. Almost the entire election will be paperless, as the voting will be on the electronic voting machine. Also, for the first time, the Commission has mandated the use of photo electoral rolls in 522 out of the 543 constituencies to clip the chances of false voting.
As many as 714 million Indians are eligible to vote in the elections to be held on April 16, 23 and 30 and May 7 and 13.
Chief election commissioner N Gopalaswami said this will be the first time the elections to the Lok Sabha will be held in the redrawn constituencies. Flanked by election commissioners Navin Chawla and SY Quraishi, Gopalaswami said the model code of conduct will come into effect immediately.
The fate of state governments in Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Sikkim will also be decided along with the Lok Sabha polls.
Uttar Pradesh, which has the maximum of 80 seats, and Jammu & Kashmir will have polls in five phases, while Bihar will go to polls in four stages. Maharashtra and West Bengal will have three-phased polls, while Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Orissa and Punjab will have voting in two stages. The remaining 15 states and seven Union territories will have one-day polling.
Since 499 constituencies have been altered as part of the delimitation process, many sitting MPs now face a new set of the electorate. The delimitation exercise did not take place in Jammu & Kashmir, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Jharkhand, Manipur and Nagaland.
Almost half of the seats will go to polls in the first two phases. In the first phase, 124 constituencies will go to polls, while 141 constituencies will witness balloting in the second phase on April 23. The remainder will see 107 seats going to the polls in the third phase on April 30, 85 seats in the penultimate phase on May 7 and 86 constituencies in the last phase on May 13.
By-elections to seven assembly constituencies?four in Nagaland, and one each in Jharkhand, Karnataka and Mizoram?will also be held simultaneously.
To ensure that polling is by and large peaceful, security arrangements will entail deployment of 40 lakh civil personnel and 21 lakh police personnel.
