Lok Sabha elections 2024: Voting schedule extends six days longer than 2019

Polling for 543 Lok Sabha constituencies will be conducted in seven phases, between April 19 and June 1, followed by counting of votes on June 4

The Election Commission's (EC's) poll schedule for the 2024 General Elections, announced on Saturday, will last six days longer than its 2019 schedule.

The number of actual polling days was seven in 2019 and remains the same for the 2024 polls. However, at 81 days, from the EC's announcing of the schedule today to counting votes on June 4, the 2024 polls will last six more days than the 2019 polls.

The EC announced the 2019 polls on March 10 and counted the votes on May 23, a span of 75 days (inclusive of both days). In 2014, the entire process, with the poll dates announced on March 5 and counting on May 16, spanned 73 days.

 

For the 2024 polls, the EC will hold single-phase elections in 22 states and UTs (Union territories), just as in 2019.

Watch: Lok Sabha elections 2024 dates, full schedule phase wise

Just as in 2019, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal will vote in each of the seven phases.

The poll schedule from five years ago differs in that the EC will hold polling in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir in five phases in 2024. In 2019, when Ladakh was part of the state, the EC conducted the elections in J&K in four phases.

The other departure from five years ago is the EC's conduct of elections in Maharashtra. In 2019, the EC conducted the polls for Maharashtra's 48 seats in four phases. In 2024, the state will witness a five-phased election.

In the context of the ethnic violence in Manipur, the EC will conduct the polling in the Outer Manipur Lok Sabha seat over two phases, on May 19 and 26. Polling for the Inner Manipur seat will take place in one phase on May 19.

Of the country's more significant urban centres, the seats in Mumbai will have their polling on May 20, Delhi on May 25, Kolkata on June 1, Chennai on April 19 and Bangalore on May 26.

The General Election to elect the 18th Lok Sabha will take place over seven phases from April 19 to June 1, with the counting of votes scheduled for June 4, the EC announced on Saturday.

It also announced the polling dates for elections to the legislative assemblies of Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim.

The EC announced dates for bypolls to 26 assembly seats across 13 seats, including six seats in the Himachal Pradesh assembly, because the six sitting Congress legislators who voted for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate in the Rajya Sabha elections on February 27 were disqualified.

Of the 26, the EC announced polling for the Karnal assembly seat in Haryana, which has fallen vacant with the resignation of former Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar. These 26 assembly seats will go to the polls alongside the polling for the respective Lok Sabha seats they fall within.

The elections to the Jammu and Kashmir legislative assembly will take place later, and not with the Lok Sabha elections, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajeev Kumar said at a press conference in the national capital.

Six of the seven phases of polling will be held either at the end of the week or on a Monday. The elections will be held on April 19 and 26, May 7, 13, 20, 25 and June 1. Four of the seven phases are scheduled at the end of a week – April 19 and 26 are Fridays, and May 25 and June 1 are Saturdays. Two of the phases fall on Mondays – May 13 and 20. The third phase, on May 7, is on a Tuesday.

The CEC urged people to exercise their vote and not go on leave. Last year, for the Karnataka Assembly polls, the EC had scheduled the polling day in the middle of the week, on May 10, 2023, a Wednesday, to ensure a better turnout in the urban areas. The voter turnout in the urban areas of Karnataka, especially Bengaluru, remained poor.

The EC has taken steps with its campaign of 'no voter to be left behind' to increase voter turnout, which was 67.4 per cent in 2019, a marginal increase over 2014's 66.44 per cent.

In 2014, the counting of votes took place on May 16, with the new council of ministers taking the oath of office on May 26. In 2019, the counting of votes was on May 23, and the council of ministers took the oath of office on May 30.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the full budget for 2019-20 in the Lok Sabha on July 5. However, the PM indicated at the last meeting of his council of ministers that the full Budget for FY 24-25 could be tabled in June.

The total electorate, as of January 1, 2024, is 968.8 million, compared to 911.9 million in 2019. Of the 968.8 million voters, 497 million are men and 471 million are women.

Over 18.4 million electors are in the 18-19 years age group, constituting 1.89 per cent of total electors. Of the total first-time voters, 8.53 million are women. Kumar said the gender ratio of the electoral rolls has improved to 948 from 928 in 2019, and 12 states/UTs have an elector gender ratio better than 1000.

There are 197.4 million voters in the age group of 20 to 29.
 

The number of electors enrolled as 'third gender' is 48,044, up from 39075 five years back.

According to the EC, 118,439 overseas electors have been enrolled in the current electoral rolls. There were 99,844 overseas electors in 2019.
 

The EC said there are 1,908,194 service electors on the electoral rolls. In 2019, the number of service electors was 1,800,388, an increase of 107,806.

As of March 10, as many as 8,187,999 senior citizens above 85 years of age and 218,442 electors above 100 years on the electoral rolls.

The EC said there has been a 1.19 per cent increase in the number of polling stations in the last five years, which will number 1,048,202 in 2024. There will be 5.5 million electronic voting machines used.

The 2024 Lok Sabha polls will have a revised ceiling for election expenses. According to the revised ceilings, which were revised in 2022, the maximum limit of election expenses for a Lok Sabha constituency is Rs 95 lakh per candidate for all states except Arunachal Pradesh, Goa and Sikkim. For these three States, it is Rs 75 lakh per candidate.

For UTs, the maximum limit for Delhi and Jammu & Kashmir is Rs 95 lakh per candidate and Rs 75 lakh per candidate for other UTs.

In Andhra Pradesh and Odisha, the limit of expenses for assembly Constituencies is Rs 40 lakh per candidate, and in Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim, it is Rs 28 lakh per candidate.

The CEC said there had been an "exponential increase" in seizures in the assembly elections held in 2022-23 compared to 2017-18. In Rajasthan, Rs 704 crore of seizures took place in the run-up to the 2023 Assembly polls, an increase of 951 per cent over 2018. Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura, Nagaland, Himachal Pradesh, Telangana, and other states witnessed similar increases in seizures.