India to begin voting on April 19 in world’s largest election

DELHI: India will begin voting in phases starting April 19 to elect a new parliament, the country’s election authority said on Saturday (March 16), the world’s largest election in which nearly one billion people are eligible to cast ballots.

The election pits two-term strongman Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his regional allies against a bickering alliance of two dozen opposition parties, with surveys suggesting a comfortable win for Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party (BJP).

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Modi will be challenged by an alliance of some two-dozen opposition parties led by the main opposition Congress party called INDIA or the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance.

Nearly 970 million people are registered to vote at over one million polling stations in the mammoth electoral exercise with 2,400 political parties likely to contest.