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New Delhi: While the announcement of Lok Sabha elections is being eagerly awaited in the country, the Election Commission will announce the schedule of Lok Sabha elections and assembly elections in four states on Saturday afternoon. The tenure of the current Lok Sabha is ending. 16 June. Before that a new Lok Sabha should be formed. Apart from this, by-elections are also likely to be announced for six assembly seats in Gujarat. The Election Commission said on X Post on Friday that along with the Lok Sabha elections, the schedule of assembly elections of four states will be announced in a press conference at 3 pm on Saturday.
The tenure of the assemblies in Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh and Odisha is ending in June. With the announcement of this election, the election code of conduct will start being implemented across the country.
During the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the election schedule was announced on 10 March and elections were held in seven phases from 11 April and the counting of votes took place on 23 May. In the year 2014 also, the Election Commission had invited journalists a day before the announcement of the election schedule. This year 97 crore people are eligible to vote at 1.2 lakh polling stations.
In the last Lok Sabha elections, BJP had won 303 seats while Congress had won 52 seats. The Congress could not even win enough seats to claim the post of Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha. The 2024 Lok Sabha elections are a do-or-die battle for the opposition Indian alliance.
BJP has set a target of winning more than 370 seats for itself and more than 400 seats for NDA in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. According to some opinion polls, NDA can get 411 out of 543 Lok Sabha seats this time, while BJP can single-handedly make a record of winning more than 350 seats.
Along with the Lok Sabha, assembly elections will also be held in Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh and Odisha. YSR Congress is in power in Andhra Pradesh whereas this time the opposition TDP seems to have the upper hand. At the same time, in Odisha, BJD under the leadership of Naveen Patnaik can make a record of winning the elections for the sixth consecutive time. Along with the assembly elections in four states, by-elections can also be announced for six assembly seats in Gujarat. In Gujarat, four MLAs from Congress, one from AAP and one independent resigned from their seats and joined BJP, leaving six seats vacant. Along with the Lok Sabha elections, there is a possibility of by-elections on these assembly seats also.
Congress demands counting of all VVPATs in Lok Sabha
On the eve of announcing the Lok Sabha election schedule, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday demanded that Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPET) should be counted during the counting of votes. He said that people are demanding that the next elections should be conducted through ballot paper instead of EVM. We have been demanding from the beginning that 100 percent VVPATs should be counted whereas the Election Commission counts only a few VVPATs. VVPAT is an independent system linked to EVs, which provides assurance to voters that their vote has gone to the party for which they have cast it. While voting, the voter can see the slip with serial number, party name and candidate's name written on it for seven seconds through the transparent glass. After this the slip goes in the VVPAT drop box. At the time of counting of votes, some VVPAT slips are counted as samples.