India to announce polling dates for world's biggest elections
The Election Commission of India will announce the dates for national polls Saturday
The schedule for the general elections and some state assembly polls will be released at a news conference at 3 p.m. local time on March 16, the commission's spokesperson said in a post on social media platform X.
New Delhi: The Election Commission of India will announce the dates for national polls Saturday, officially kicking off campaigning in the world's biggest democracy.
With almost 1 billion registered voters in India, polling is usually conducted in several phases over multiple weeks across the country. Up for a vote are all 543 members of the Lok Sabha, India's lower house of Parliament, with the winning party selecting the country's prime minister and forming a government.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party is widely expected to extend its decade in power, buoyed by support from its largely Hindu-majority base and a soaring economy. It's facing an opposition alliance that's been weakened by party defections, investigations and arrests of opposition leaders, and a cash crunch.