The notification for the first phase of voting in the 18th Lok Sabha elections will be issued on Wednesday, setting the stage for the world’s largest electoral process.
According to the schedule announced by the Election Commission (EC), polling will be held in 102 parliamentary constituencies spread across 21 States and Union Territories in the first phase. The last date for filing nominations for candidates is 27th March except for Bihar, which is 28th March.
The scrutiny of nominations will take place on 28th March in 20 States and Union Territories while in Bihar on 30th March.
For Bihar, the last date for withdrawal of candidature is 2nd March and for others on 30th March.
The polling is scheduled to take place on 19th April.
Last week, the poll panel announced that the general elections will be held in seven phases between 19th April 19 and 1st June, and the results will be declared on 4th June.
In three big states–Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal, the polling will be spread over the seven phases.
A total of 96.8 crore voters will be eligible to cast their vote in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. There will be 10.5 lakh polling stations and 1.5 crore polling officials and security staff will be deployed to conduct the elections.
The tenure of the current Lok Sabha ends on 16th June.
It may be mentioned that BJP and Congress have so far released two lists of candidates each for the general elections.