NEW DELHI, Mac 17 (NNN-PTI) – India’s Election Commission, yesterday said, the country’s forthcoming general elections will be conducted in seven phases starting Apr 19.
India’s Chief Election Commissioner, Rajiv Kumar, announced at a press conference, the complete schedule of the elections, which will run through Jun 1.
According to Kumar, the vote counting would be carried out on Jun 4.
Officials said, nearly 970 million people are expected to cast their votes, at over one million polling stations across the country.
Kumar said, the use of money, muscle, misinformation and violation of model code of conduct, are the major challenges before the poll body.
In the coming elections, incumbent Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, from the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is seeking a third term. He is facing challenges from an alliance of around two dozen opposition parties, namely Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), led by the main opposition Congress party.
Modi’s BJP has set a target of 370 seats for itself, and 400-plus for the alliance it leads, known as the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
In the last elections, held in 2019, the BJP won 303 seats in the 543-member lower house of the Indian parliament. That was the party’s best-ever performance since its formation in 1980.
India’s Congress party, which was in power in the majority of years since the nation’s independence from British rule in 1947, is struggling hard to make a comeback.– NNN-PTI
