General Elections in India – An Overview of World’s Largest Democracy

India – Loktantra ki Matruka

India is often called as the Mother of All Democracies. And rightly so.

In today’s article we will get an overview of the procedure of the General Elections in India.

Year 2024, remarkable year as we celebrated 75th year of our republic Day in January. A Day which we recognize for the adaptation of our constitution. This year the theme of Republic Day was ‘Vikasit Bharat’ and ‘Bharat Loktantra ki Matrika’. Very well defining India as the mother is democracy.. And what better pictures of democracy we can portray than the ‘General Elections’ in regular terms ‘Loksabha Chunav’. 

Lok Sabha – the ‘Lower house of Parliament’ also known as the house of People because it’s member are elected by the People of India. The house has 543 seats which are filled by elected members.

To form a Government, a political party requires majority in the Lok Sabha. Hence summing upto 272 or above seats. The General elections are organized by an independent body i.e. the Election Commission of India. The ECI’s responsibility is to conduct free and fair elections. The entire process starts with deciding the dates for the Filing of Nominations, Voting, Counting and lastly Announcing the results.

After Independence, the Constituent Assembly of India was elected to write the Constitution of India. 

In 1950 after the constitution came into force, the Constituent Assembly of India was dissolved and succeeded by the Parliament of India, which is active to this day.

The first Lok Sabha / General elections were held in India between 25 October 1951 and 21 February 1952, the first democratic elections after India attained independence in 1947.

The last general elections were held in year 2019, which was a one side win for India’s largest political party i.e. BJP ( Bhartiya Janta Party) lead by Mr. JP Nadda as party president and Mr Narendra Modi as elected Prime Minister. 

The BJP received 37.36% of the vote, the highest vote share by a political party since the 1989 general election, and won 303 seats alone. The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) won 353 seats. 

Indian Constitution sets qualifications for being a member of Lok Sabha, which are as follows:

1. They should be a citizen of India. 

2. They should not be less than 25 years of age.

3. They possess other such qualifications as may be prescribed in that behalf by or under any law made by the Parliament.

4. They should not be proclaimed criminal i.e. they should not be a convict; and

5. They should have their name in the electoral rolls in any part of the country.

Voting in India is done using Electronic voting machines (EVMs) and there are provisions for Postal voting and special arrangements for the Sr. Citizens and disabled 

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EVM were introduced by the Election Commission to reduce malpractices and also to improve efficiency. The EVMs were first trialed in 1982 in the by-election in Kerala. 

This year the general elections are conducted in 7 phases ( was same in year 2019) 

The dates of polling for the Lok Sabha are 

Phase 1 – April 19, 

Phase 2 – April 26, 

Phase 3 – May 7, 

Phase 4 – May 13, 

Phase 5 – May 20, 

Phase 6 – May 25, and 

Phase 7 – June 1.

There are 18.2 Million first time voters, of which 8.5 million are women. 

This is the first time in a general election that people above the age of 85 years, as well as those with more than 40% disability, were able to vote from their own homes. There are 8.5 million registered voters who are aged above 85 years while the number of voters with disabilities is 8.84 million. 

Organizing home voting for such a massive amount of people is an incredibly difficult task. But that’s what the Election Commission of India did with the support of Government for infrastructure needs. 

Approximately 970 million people out of a population of 1.4 billion people of India are eligible to vote in the 18th Lok Sabha elections, which is equivalent to 70% of the total population.The number is almost 3 times the population of United States of America.

The process to follow in election is pretty simple, and if required can be guided too befor entering the EVM room. 

Steps followed at the polling booth by the election authorities –

1. Polling official checks the voter’s name on the voter list and ID proof. 

2. After that they will ink voter’s finger, and give a slip and take voter’s signature on a register. 

3. You will have to deposit the slip at the third polling official and show the inked finger and then proceed to the polling booth. 

4. Record the vote by pressing the ballot button opposite the symbol of the candidate of voter’s choice on the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM). A beep sound will be heard confirming that the button has been pressed correctly. 

5. In the transparent window of the VVPAT machine, a slip with will appear with candidates confirmation. That slip will show Candidate serial No., Name and Symbol for 7 seconds before it is dropped in the sealed Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT -used since 2014 in General Election) box. 

One can press NOTA (None of the above) added in 2014 and now mandatory, if they don’t like any candidate; it’s the last button on the EVM.

To prevent electoral fraud, Electors Photo Identity Cards (EPIC) were introduced in 1993. However certain legal documents such as Aadhaar or ration cards have been allowed for voting in certain situations.

Casting vote in general election and all other elections is not just our right but also our responsibility as the citizen of India.

I consider myself truly lucky that I could travel to India to cast my vote in the the Lokasabha election 2024.

I hold my vote for the city of Pune where the elections were in the Phase-4, and there were 36 candidates belonging to Political party or Independent to choose from.

There are tremendous campaigns running by all political parties on all media channels. Social and digital media is fully occupied in covering the elections in large cities as well as small  villages. 

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The urban and rural majority seems to be going with the current Government. Few of the main reasons are the ‘Aayushmaan yojana’ , ‘pradhaanamantree aavaas yojana’, Ram Mandir nirmaan etc

The main reason why opposition might be losing their power is because they have lost the credibility as an honest political party. The recent raids and alleged financial frauds have made people lose their faith in words of the party members of opposition party. 

On the day of election, I arrived at the polling station (which was the biggest school of that area) around 9:30 am, and the temperature outside was around 39 degree that early in the morning but to my surprise the centre  was full, people queued up outside every classroom and that showcased the power of democracy. 

The will to choose the right candidate was so high that people came out to vote beating the horror of undesirable weather.. 

Let’s hope that the best Person wins!! 

About the Author – Shilpi Srivastava

Shilpi moved to Manchester from Pune, India a year ago. She works for Finnish IT company.

In her free time she loves writting poem and short stories and volunteers at the different non profit organizations.

She is fond of travelling and trying different cuisines.

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