India General Elections from 19 Apr to 1 Jun, Results on 4 Jun

On 16 Mar, the Election Commission of India announced the schedule of the 18^th General Elections. Polls will be held from 19 Apr to 1 Jun in seven phases; results will be declared on 4 Jun. Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar also announced simultaneous elections in four states and by polls on 26 Assembly seats in different states. Nearly 968M people are eligible to cast their votes in the upcoming polls at over 1.2M polling stations. The election in Panjab will be on 1 Jun. On 14 Mar, the Indian govt. appointed retired Indian Administrative Service officers Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu as new Election Commissioners (EC). Their appointment fills vacancies caused by Anup Chandra Pandey’s retirement in Feb and Arun Goel’s surprise resignation on 9 Mar. Sandhu is a former Chief Secretary of Uttarakhand and Kumar retired in January as Secretary, Ministry of Cooperation. Kumar was in the Ministry of Home Affairs at the time of the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir. In March 2023, the Supreme Court ordered that the ECs be selected by a panel comprising the Chief Justice of India (CJI), Prime Minister, Leader of Opposition, and others. In December 2023, the Indian govt. passed the Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Bill, dropping the CJI from the panel. INC member of the panel Adhir Ranjan Chowdhry, the sole opposition member, criticized the selection process of the new appointments, saying it was fait accompli that the BJP government’s pre-decided candidates would be chosen for the posts.