The Election Commission of India on Saturday announced the schedule for elections to elect the new parliament of the country.
According to the schedule, India will elect a new parliament in seven phases between April 19 and early June. This is going to be the world’s largest election with nearly one billion eligible voters.
Rajiv Kumar, the head of the independent Election Commission of India, told reporters, “We address you at a precious moment, when we as a nation are set to reiterate our pledge to electoral democracy, when Indians will together express their will once again.”
He said the last of the seven phases of voting will be held on June 1 and votes counted on June 4.
The election pits Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his regional allies against a bickering alliance of two dozen opposition parties. Surveys suggest a comfortable win for Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
If elected, Modi (73) would become only the second prime minister after Jawaharlal Nehru to win a third straight term. He said the “biggest festival of democracy” had started and his party would campaign on its track record of “good governance and public service”.
Modi said in a series of posts on X, “I have full confidence that we will get the full affection and blessings” of more than 960 million voters for the third consecutive time.
