General Election-2019

2019 Indian general election

The 2019 Indian general election is scheduled to be held in seven phases from 11 April to 19 May 2019 to constitute the 17^th Lok Sabha . The counting of votes will be conducted on 23 May, and on the same day the results will be declared.

Legislative Assembly  elections in the states of Andra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Odissa and Sikkin  will be held simultaneously with the general election.

Electoral system

All 543 elected MP’s   will be elected from single-member constituencies using first-past-the-post voting. The President of India nominates an additional two members from the Anglo-Indian community if he believes the community is under-represented.

Eligible voters must be Indian citizens, 18 or older, an ordinary resident of the polling area of the constituency and possess a valid voter identification card issued by the Election Commission of India. Some people convicted of electoral or other offences are barred from voting.

Dates of elections announced by Election Commission of India (ECI) on 10 March 2019, after which Model Code of Conduct was applied with immediate effect. The voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) system which enables electronic voting machines to record each vote cast by generating the EVM slip, will be introduced in all 543 Lok sabha constituencies. A total of 17.4 lakh VVPAT units will be used in as many as 10,35,918 polling stations during the elections. On 9 April 2019, Supreme Court of India gave the judgement, ordering the Election Commission of India to increase VVPAT slips vote count in five randomly selected EVMs per assembly constituency, which means Election Commission of India has to count VVPAT slips of 20,625 EVMs. According to the Election Commission of India, 900 million people were eligible to vote, with an increase of 84.3 million voters since the last general election in 2014, making this the largest-ever election in the world. 15 million voters in the age group of 18-19 years are eligible to exercise their right to vote for the first time. 71,735 overseas voters have been enrolled in the electoral rolls for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Election schedule

The election schedule was announced on 10 March 2019, and with it the Model Code of Conduct came into force.

Election schedule

The election is scheduled to be held in seven phases, with counting starting on 23 May. In Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, the election will be held in all seven phases. The polling for the Anantanag constituency in the state of Jammu and Kashmir will be held in three phases, the first of its kind, due to violence in the region that had prompted the ECI to cancel a bypoll in 2016, leaving it vacant since then.

Phase	Date	Constituencies	States and Union Territories
1	11 April	91	20	Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jammu and Kashmir, Maharashtra, Mizoram, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Odisha, Sikkim, Telangana, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep
2	18 April	97	13	Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Manipur, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Puducherry
3	23 April	115	14	Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Goa, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu
4	29 April	71	9	Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal
5	6 May	51	7	Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal
6	12 May	59	7	Bihar, Haryana, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Delhi
7	19 May	59	8	Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, West Bengal, Chandigarh, Uttar Pradesh

Among the interventions by the Election Commission was a ban on the use of images of individuals killed in the 2019 Pulwama attack. Later, Teeka Ram Meena, the Chief Election Officer, banned the use of issues related to the Sabarimala temple during the poll campaign.

In 2015, an India-Bangladesh boundary agreement was signed, in which the two countries exchanged their enclaves. As a result, it will be the first time in which residents of these former enclaves vote in an Indian general election.