New Delhi, March 16 (IANS) The Election Commission of India on Saturday announced the schedule for the 543 parliamentary constituencies for 18th Lok Sabha elections, the biggest democratic exercise in the world involving 96.8 crore voters, including 21.5 crore young voters between age 18 to 29 years old.

The poll schedule for four state Assemblies - Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim - were also declared.

Besides this, bypolls to 26 Assembly seats will be held in Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Tripura, Telangana, and Tamil Nadu.

With this, the Model Code of Conduct, as is the established norm, came into immediate effect.

Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, flanked by the two newly appointed Election Commissioners Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, said elections would be held in seven phases. In 2019, elections were also held in seven phases.

The Lok Sabha elections 2024 will be held at 10.5 lakh polling stations from April 19 to June 1 and counting of votes will be held on June 4.

The first phase of polling will be conducted on April 19, the second phase will be held on April 26, the third phase on May 7, the fourth phase on May 13, the fifth phase on May 20, the sixth phase on May 25, and the seventh and final phase will be held on June 1.

The tenure of the 17th Lok Sabha ends on June 16.

There was also a great deal of popular anticipation as to whether polls for the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly would be synchronised with the parliamentary election. That, however, has not happened, perhaps due to considerations relating to the security situation in the region.

The Supreme Court has directed that polls for the Union Territory of J&K have to be completed by September end. / IANS