Curated By: News Desk
Edited By: Shilpy Bisht
News18.com
Last Updated: March 18, 2024, 08:37 IST
New Delhi, India
Around 10.5 lakh polling booths have been set up, which will be manned by 1.5 crore polling officials.(Representative image/PTI)
The 18th Lok Sabha Election will not just be a spectacle but a game-changer for India, whose 97 crore registered voters – the largest in the world so far — will elect their representatives starting April 19.
With the completion of electoral rolls and delimitation of constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir and Assam, a lot of meticulous planning, coordination, participation of parties has gone into the world’s largest election, the Election Commission had stated.
Let’s see what the numbers say about this year’s elections:
April 19: The Election Commission announced on March 16 the schedule for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, which will take place in seven phases from April 19 to June 1. Results will be declared on June 4. The Phase 1 polling will be held on April 19, the second on April 26, third on May 7, fourth on May 13, fifth phase on May 20, sixth on May 25 and the last phase on June 1. CEC Rajiv Kumar said 55 lakh EVMS will be used in the entire exercise. Voters above 85 years and persons with disabilities with 40% benchmark disability can vote from home. Drone-based checking will be in place at some international borders in order to check violence, the CEC added.
2.63 crore new electors, who have been included in the electoral roll, are between 18 and 29 years of age, out of which, around 1.41 crore are female electors which surpassed the newly enrolled male voters (1.22 crore) by over 15%. There are 1.82 crore first-time voters, and 19.47 crore voters between the age of 20 and 29 years. Around 10.5 lakh polling booths have been set up, which will be manned by 1.5 crore polling officials.
400: Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said early February that the BJP alone would get at least 370 seats and NDA would cross the 400-seat mark in the 2024 Lok Sabha. News18 Opinion Poll predicts BJP-led NDA heading for the historic mandate of “400 paar” this time. According to the poll, the NDA is set to win 411 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha with BJP alone clinching a record 350 seats. The remaining NDA constituents, including JD(U) and TDP, will win 61 seats. INDIA bloc, however, will win 105 seats in the lower house, with the Congress securing 49, it had predicted. The Opinion Poll predicted major gains for the BJP in states including Odisha, Telangana, West Bengal, and Tamil Nadu.
39: The NDA led by BJP includes JD(U), Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena, Ajit Pawar-led NCP, and JD(S) among others. The BJP won 303 seats in the Lok Sabha elections on its own. Its current strength is 290. Nitish Kumar-led JD(U) is the second biggest member of the alliance, which has 16 seats in the lower house. Thus, with the ambitious target of 400 seats, the NDA is scouting for new allies in BJD and TDP. TDP was part of Atal Bihari Vaypayee-led NDA but it did not join the government and instead settled for the post of Lok Sabha Speaker. The BJD, which quit the BJP alliance in 2008 during Kandhamal, will help each other in the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.
28: The political parties including the TMC, AAP, CPI(M), CPI form the INDIA alliance. Troubles began in the alliance since the discussions on seat sharing for the Lok Sabha elections. AAP and Congress, however, announced contesting elections together in Delhi, Haryana, Gujarat, Chandigarh and Goa. While the I.N.D.I.A partners have concluded their seat sharing arrangements in Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, the talks in Bihar are moving forward in a “positive manner” while it is stuck in Maharashtra with Shiv Sena (UBT), Congress and NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) fighting for seats.
7.6%: The government pegs FY24 GDP growth at 7.6%. The GDP grew 8.4% y-o-y during the October-December 2023 quarter (Q3 FY24) as compared with the 4.3 per cent growth recorded a year ago, according to the latest official data. For the Q3 FY24, analysts had expected a slower GDP growth of between 6% and 7%. India’s economy had grown 7.6% in the preceding July-September 2023 quarter. Robust 8.4% GDP growth in Q3 2023-24 shows the strength of Indian economy and its potential, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said.
5%: Less than 5% of Indians are now expected to be below poverty line, said BVR Subrahmanyam, chief executive officer at the Centre’s think tank Niti Aayog. The urban-rural consumption divide has narrowed to 71% in 2022-23 from a peak of 91% in 2004-05, so inequality is declining, he said. Latest data on household consumption expenditure showed significant shifts in rural and urban consumption, with share of food and cereals coming down. The survey showed that at current prices, rural monthly per capita consumption spending rose 164% from Rs 1,430 in 2011-12 to Rs 3,773 in 2022-23 while in urban areas, it shot up 146% from Rs 2,630 in 2011-12 to Rs 6,459 in 2022-23.