Lok Sabha election 2024 schedule: Seven-phase polling to begin from April 19, result on June 4

Lok Sabha election 2024 will be held in seven phases beginning from April 19. The counting will be on June 4. The phase 1 polling will be held on April 19, the second phase on April 26, third phase on May 7, fourth phase on May 13, 5th phase on May 20, 6th phase on May 25 and the last and the 7th phase on June 1.

The announcements come within 24 hours of two new election commissioners -- Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Sandhu -- taking charge.

Detailing the preparedness for the election, the CEC said 97 crore registered voters including 47.1 crore womenwill be able to exercise their franchise. 55 lakh EVMS will be used in the entire exercise. Voters above 85 years and persons with disabilities with 40% benchmark disability can vote from home. Vote from home option was availed in some of the assembly elections but this is the first time that this will be held across the county in the general election.

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By-elections to 26 assembly seats across 13 states, including six constituencies in Himachal Pradesh where Congress MLAs were disqualified for rebellion, will be held along with the Lok Sabha elections beginning April 19.

Challenge of 4Ms

Talking about the challenges of 4Ms (muscle, money, misinformation, MCC violation), the CEC said the EC is committed to curbing violence. There will be drone-based checking at some international borders, a network of checkpoints has been set up across the country.

EC will take differential treatment in each state to stop the misuse of money. For this, the EC has already held meetings with agencies and said freebies need to be cracked down. Banks will be sending daily reports of suspicious transactions.

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Misinformation will be thwarted using the IT Act in which each state is authorised to ask to take down fake social media posts, the CEC said. The EC will launch a ‘Myth versus Reality’ section on its site.

Political parties have been asked to hand out MCC guidelines to all the star campaigners. “Please avoid creating digital memory of the bad words coming out of your mouth,” the CEC said in a warning for campaigners.

In 2019, Lok Sabha elections were held in seven phases from April 11 to May 19 and the results were declared on May 23. Winning a total of 303 seats, the Narendra Modi-led NDA got its second consecutive term.

This will be the first election the NDA will contest against the INDIA bloc -- the grouping of the opposition parties, regional parties led by the Congress. Narendra Modi sounded the election bugle weeks ago as he set the target of '400 paar' seats for the NDA and 370+ for the BJP alone.