Lok Sabha election 2024 – ECI Announced Dates For General Elections In INDIA!

Lok Sabha Election 2024 Date: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Saturday announced the eagerly awaited schedule for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, along with the dates for Assembly elections in select states.

The voting will begin from April 19 and result will be declared on June 4, 2024, said ECI. The term of 17th Lok Sabha assembly will expire on June 16, 2024, said chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar.

The elections will be held in seven phases. The first phase to be held on April 19, second phase on April 26, third phase on May 7, fourth phase on May 13, fifth phase on May 20, sixth phase on May 25 and the seventh phase on June 1, 2024.

“We have 97 crore registered voters, over 10.5 lakh polling stations manned by 1.5 crore personnel, 55 lakh EVMs, ” the CEC said. He further said that the electoral roll includes 82 lakh voters of over 85 years of age and 2.18 lakh centenarians.

The election commission announced that the senior citizen above the age of 85 and persons with disability (PwD) voters with 40 per cent benchmark disability can vote from home.

The CEC said that any candidate with criminal records will have to publish it in newspapers thrice.

Challenges flagged by EC
The election commission highlighted four challenges in conducting free and fair elections which were muscle, money, misinformation, and MCC violations.

“Ensuring voters’ trust is paramount. Violence in elections is unacceptable. Impersonators to be swiftly punished. Transparency in permissions to parties/candidates through SUVIDHA portal,” the EC representative said.

While talking about the previous elections, the CEC said, “Last 11 state polls were peaceful, violence-free with near-zero repolls; we will further improve it going forward.”

To manage misuse of money, banks will be maintaining a strict vigil over illicit online cash transfers, suspicious transactions through payment wallets.

“Money seizures rose by 835 per cent to Rs 3,400 crore in last 11 state polls during 2022-23; we won’t allow misuse of money power,” said EC.

The Election Commission held a press conference to announce the schedule for General Elections 2024 & some State Assemblies at 3 pm on Saturday. The event was live-streamed on the ECI’s social media platforms.

Lok Sabha Elections 2024 Phase Wise Schedule:

Following the past trends, the election dates were expected to be spread across multiple phases. The 2019 Lok Sabha elections, for instance, were conducted over seven phases from April 11 to May 19, with results announced on May 23.

Meanwhile, political parties have already begun the process of selecting candidates for the upcoming elections, with both the BJP and Congress having released two lists of candidates each.

Almost 970 million voters are eligible to participate in the upcoming elections across more than 1.2 million polling stations. The ruling BJP has set a target to secure 400 seats for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and 370 solely for the party, it’s seen as a critical battle for the Opposition, united under the INDIA bloc in many states.

In the 2019 elections, the BJP won 303 seats, while the Congress secured 52 seats, falling short of the numbers required to become the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha. These elections were declared on March 10 and conducted over seven phases.