INDIA GENERAL ELECTION FINAL STAGE

India’s Election Enters Final Stages: India is in the final phases of its general election, with Phase 5 voting currently underway. Key political figures, including opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, are contesting in this crucial phase
India election 2024 live news: 49 seats vote in Phase 5 of Lok Sabha polls #india #iran #sudan #usa #ukraine #war
The fifth phase of voting in India’s seven-phase election is under way in 49 seats across six states and two union territories.
The first four phases of the mammoth vote were held on April 19, April 26, May 7 and May 13. The next two phases fall on May 25 and June 1, and the votes will be counted on June 4.
Battle lines are sharply drawn in Amethi, which the Congress party wants to wrest from federal Minister for Women and Child Development, Smriti Irani.
In 2019, Irani defeated Rahul Gandhi in a seat his family held continuously for the last four decades. This year, the Congress has fielded longtime loyalist of the Gandhi family, Kishori Lal Sharma, to take on the BJP leader.
Over the years, the number of days over which voting has stretched has varied a lot - from the shortest ever four days in 1980 to 39 days in the 2019 election, to 44 days in 2024.
The primary reason for the multiphased election is for the deployment of huge federal security forces required to check everything from polling-related violence or attempts at rigging, according to N Gopalaswami, the former chief election commissioner of India.
Still, staggered polls are no guarantee for free and fair elections as longer campaigning favours the governing party, said N Bhaskara Rao, a pioneer in election research in India and chairman of the New Delhi-based Centre for Media Studies.
Rao argued that the process should be shortened. The longer the process, the more the opportunity for the governing party to use government infrastructure to campaign.✅