Politicians are already in campaign mode for what is the world’s largest exercise in democracy, with around 900 million people eligible to cast a vote.Indians will be voting for the 545-seat lower house of parliament — called the Lok Sabha — and polling will unfold over seven phases around the country ending on May 19. Of the total.
543 seats will be up for grabs in the coming election.All the votes from the country’s 29 states and seven union territories will be counted on May 23, the commission said at a press conference in New Delhi.Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are seeking re-election after a landslide victory in 2014, winning 282 seats — the largest majority by a single party in 30 years.
The election is coming off the back of escalating tensions between India and Pakistan over the disputed Kashmir region that almost brought the two nuclear armed neighbors to the brink of war.