The 2019 general election  for 543 Lok Sabha seats will be held in seven phases across India this year. This was announced by the Chief Election Commissioner of India Sunil Arora this evening.

Addressing a press conference at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi, CEC Sunil Arora said the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) comes into effect from Sunday itself in the entire country and any violation will be dealt with in the strictest manner.

Arora said that 1st phase polling to be held on 11th April, 2nd phase on 18th April, 3rd phase on 23rd April, 4th phase polling to be held on 29th April, 5th phase polling on 6th May, 6th phase polling on 12th May and 7th phase on 19th May.

Counting of all phases will be held on 23rd May.

As many as 91 constituencies in 20 states will go to poll in Phase1, 97 constituencies in 13 states in Phase 2, 115 constituencies in 14 states in Phase 3, 71 constituencies in 9 states in Phase 4, 51 constituencies in 7 states in Phase 5, 59 constituencies in 7 states in phase 6 and 59 constituencies in 8 states in Phase 7.

Elections to Legislative Assemblies of Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Odisha to be held simultaneously with the general elections to the Lok Sabha, informed the Chief Election Commissioner of India.

The CEC further informed that based on the input, constraint of availability of central forces&other logistics, requirement of forces for security of candidates in wake of recent violence and keeping other challenges in mind EC has decided at this stage to announce only schedule of Parliament election in Jammu and Kashmir.

Arora said that there are a total of 900 million electorates in this Lok Sabha election, of which 15 million voters are in the 18-19 age group.

There will be approximately 10 lakh polling stations in this Lok Sabha Elections as compared to 9 lakh polling stations in 2014, he added.
The Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) will be used for voting. The EVM will have photos of the candidates to avoid confusion among the voters.