Dates for General Elections 2019 Announced.

The Lok Sabha election results will be announced on 23 May, with the polling happening in seven phases, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora announced on Sunday, 10 March.

The states of Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim will have Assembly elections simultaneously with the Lok Sabha polls.

The states of Bihar, UP and West Bengal will go to polls in seven phases. Meanwhile, Jammu and Kashmir will have five phases of polling.

The national capital will be voting on 12 May in phase six of the Lok Sabha elections.
The states of Bihar, UP and West Bengal will go to polls in seven phases. Jammu and Kashmir will have five phases of polling.



Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra will have voting in four phases, while Assam and Chhattisgarh will have three phases.

Karnataka, Manipur, Rajasthan and Tripura will have two phases of voting. All the remaining states will vote in a single phase.

However, Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections will not be held alongside the Lok Sabha polls, with the Election Commission citing security reasons for the decision.

With the election dates being announced, the Model Code of Conduct has come into force.

CEC Sunil Arora said that all content posted on social media by political parties and their candidates will come under the purview of the Model Code of Conduct. Due to complaints about the security of EVMs, last-mile transportation of these machines will be tracked through GPS in the upcoming polls.

This year, number of voters has increased by 84.3 million for these elections compared to the last one. Ninety crore people will be eligible to vote in the Lok Sabha elections, of which 15 million are in the 18-19 age group. Also, the number of polling stations has increased from 9 lakh to 10 lakh.

Soon after the announcement of the dates, PM Modi took to Twitter, saying, "The Festival of democracy, Elections are here."

Calling upon people to cast their vote, Modi also listed the achievements of his government in a series of tweets. He also took a dig at the previous UPA government saying there was "unprecedented anger over the UPA's corruption, nepotism and policy paralysis".

While The Congress on Sunday took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, hours before the EC's scheduled announcement of dates for the Lok Sabha polls, saying it was the first day of his "vidai parv" (farewell festival).