India starts voting in the world largest election

India starts voting in the world largest election

Voters in India started casting votes in the world largest parliamentary election on Friday morning, setting off a marathon poll battle as Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeks a record-equaling third straight tenure in office.
In the first phase of the general elections, polling, which began at 7:00am (India time) and will end at 6:00pm, will be held for 102 Lok Sabha constituencies spread across 21 states and union territories, making it the largest among all the seven phases to be held till June 1 before counting of votes is taken up on June 4.
Over 16.63 crore voters across 1.87 lakh polling stations are eligible to cast their votes in the first phase, including 8.4 crore male, 8.23 crore female and 11,371 third gender electors to decide the electoral fate of 1,625 candidates (males 1,491 and females 134), according to the Election Commission.