India goes to polls from April 19 in staggered 7-stage exercise

Modi seeking third consecutive term in power; results likely on June 4, when counting starts

- Nirmala Ganapathy

NEW DELHI Indians will start voting from April 19 in sevenstage, staggered elections in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi will seek a third consecutive term in power.

Mr Modi is heading into these elections on a very confident note, compared with elections in 2014 and 2019, amid fast economic growth, a rise in Hindu nationalism and an increase in India’s global stature.

Around 970 million Indians are eligible to vote in the elections that end on June 1. The results are expected to be known on June 4, when the counting of votes will take place.

Announcing the election dates on March 16, India’s chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar called the Indian elections the biggest democratic festival” in the world.

He said: 2024 is the year of elections across the world. We are committed to give India a truly festive democratic environment.”

But he said that misinformation, on top of corruption and voter intimidation, remained the biggest challenges to the electoral process.

Elections in India are a massive undertaking, with some 1.05 million booths and 5.5 million electronic voting machines in 2024, and 15 million election officials who will oversee the elections across 28 states and nine union territories.