India general election voting begins on April 11, officials say
- More than 800 million people from Himalayan peaks to tropical shores eligible to vote in contest pitting PM Narendra Modi against main rival Rahul Gandhi
- Polls have suggested ebbing support for Modi’s BJP and it may fall short of the 272 seats it needs to form a government on its own
India announced on Sunday a general election to be held over nearly six weeks starting on April 11, when hundreds of millions voters will cast ballots in the world’s biggest democracy.
Some 900 million voters from the Himalayan peaks to the deserts and tropical shores are eligible to vote for a new government for the next five years in an enormous democratic undertaking.
From April 11 to May 19 voters will elect 543 lawmakers to India’s lower house of parliament, the Lok Sabha, which governs the Asian nation of 1.25 billion people from the capital New Delhi, the electoral commission said. Counting will be completed and the final results announced on May 23, it added.
They are the two strongest challengers from a field of hundreds of political parties from across the culturally and geographically diverse country of 1.25 billion.