Longest poll after 1951,52 declared to be held between April 19 to June 1 with counting on June 4. Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh to go to poll on 19 April among 21 states

The elections to the 18 th Lok Sabha has been announced by the chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar in the presence of two newly appointed Election commissioner viz My.Gyanesh Ex IAS officer 1988 batch and S.S.Sandhu former chief secretary of Uttarakhand n several deputy election commissioners. The elections will be held between April 19 and June 1 in seven phases with final counting for all the parliamentary and assembly seats to be declared on June 4, 2024. According to the CEC this will be the longest general elections being held since the elections held in 1951- 1952 which lasted for four months. Addressing the press conference the CEC announced that the elections to 102 parliamentary constituencies will go to the polls in the first hase if voting on April 19 th , 89 constituencies in phase 2 on April 26 , 94 constituencies in phase 3 on May 7 , 96 in phase 4 on May 13 , 49 in phase 5 on May 20 and 570 each in Phase 6 on May 25 and Phase 7 on June 10 finally. The declaration of the election dates and schedule of the general elections automatically brings into force the Code of Conduct with immediate effect in entire nation and will restrict the state and central agencies not to start any new project or developmental activity or announcement of schemes , projects or distribution of freebies etc which if done or executed will ammount to cancellation of the elections and terming them as invalid. According to the chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar who spoke for about fifty minutes extempore about 96.8 crores total voters are eligible to vote in the country with 49.7 crore male voters and 47.1crores women voters. This time 7 crores voters have increased as compared to the total tally of voters in 2019. There would be 10.5 lakhs polling centres all over the country. About 1.82crores voters would be casting their votes for the first time. What is interesting to note that 2 lakh 18 thousand votes this time are above 100 years and the voters above 85 years are 1 crores 85 lakhs in numbers. The election commission staff will go to the doorstep of the voters above 80 years with ballot papers to seek their votes. According to the chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar this time the EC is very strict and all efforts are being made to rope in all the law enforcing agencies to ensure that there is no distribution of freebies and black money restricted in all states being circulated during elections for its massive misuse to entice voters disclosing that last time about 3400 crores worth of illegal black money was caught during the 2019 elections and Gujrat topped the states from where Rs 85 crores worth of black money was confiscated during the general elections. The elections of the four state assemblies are also being held during these national elections. The CEC Rajiv Kumar strictly cautioned regarding the plating n spreading of fake news and rumour mongering in social media and other forms of media saying that such elements will be dealt with severely and jailed. He said that more than 2000 election commission personel will be deployed in the general elections and no leniency would be exercised as the staff n officers of the EC have been fully trained leaving no scope whatsoever for any default or error.

In the first phase of elections, voters would be casting their votes in 102 Lok Sabha seats in 21 states. 21 states include Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Andaman and Nicobar, Jammu and Kashmir, Lakshadweep and Puducherry.

This is the third election of the BJP led NDA government led by prime minister Narendra Modi and the contest primarily is between BJP led NDA and the India National Developmental Inclusive Alliance with Congress as the leading opposition party. If elected again this will be the third term of prime minister Narendra Modi.

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