Voters in India started casting votes in the world’s largest parliamentary election this morning, setting off a marathon poll battle as Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeks a record-equaling third straight tenure in office.
Millions of people across several states and territories in India went to the polls Friday, as the highly populated nation began its general elections, a six-week process that marks the biggest democratic exercise in history with nearly a billion eligible voters.
Polls are being conducted across 21 states and territories on Friday, covering 102 of the 543 constituencies. This includes all 39 seats in Tamil Nadu—the most populous state in South India. As of 3 p.m. local time, the overall turnout stood at around 50%.
The electorate will include 18.5 million voters aged either 18 or 19 and 197.4 million in their 20s. Additionally, the voter rolls include 48,044 voters classified as third gender, while 497 million are male and 471 million are female voters.
The Election Commission is required to ensure polling booth access even to people living the country’s remotest parts. In previous elections, this has included setting up the world’s highest polling station at Tashigang, located at an altitude of 15,256 feet in the mountainous North India state of Himachal Pradesh. In 2019, five polling officials trekked deep into the Gir forest in Gujarat to allow Bharatdas Darshandas—the lone caretaker of a temple in the forest—to cast his vote.
67.40% was the total turnout of voters in the 2019 general elections, which had an eligible electorate of 896 million.
The country has more than 2,500 political parties but just 10 of them hold 86% of all seats in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of parliament.
