The Election Commission of India announced the schedule of the six-week marathon vote during a news conference in New Delhi on Saturday, Al Jazeera reported.
Nearly 970 million voters – more than the entire population of the United States, the European Union, and Russia combined – are eligible to cast their ballot, according to the poll panel’s data, making the election the largest democratic exercise in the world.
“We will take democracy to every corner of the country,” Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said as he announced the voting dates. “We promise to deliver a national election in a manner that we … remain a beacon for democracy around the world.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking a third straight term in the vote, has set a target of 370 seats for his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and 400-plus for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) the BJP heads in the 543-member lower house of parliament.
SD/PR
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