Analysis of the Lok Sabha Election 2024

The Modi government is synonymous with monumental events; it leaves a profound impression on people's minds. You may criticize him for making mountains out of molehills, but at the same time, you may appreciate him for justifying the old saying of 14^th-century historian Ziauddin Barni: “Whenever the awe and splendour of the ruler do not impress the hearts of the ordinary people and the select from far and near, sovereignty and the conduct of government cannot be properly upheld.” 

The ongoing Lok Sabha election 2024 started on Friday, April 19, 2024, and will run until June 1, 2024. It is the second-longest election after the first Lok Sabha election conducted in 1951–52. It will be conducted in seven phases to ensure a fair and transparent election. 970 million people will be casting their votes in 44 days. Additionally, four state legislative elections (Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha, and Sikkim) along with 25 by-elections will be conducted. The cost of the election is expected to be around 1 lakh crore, which appears to be triple the amount the government spent in the general election of 2014.

Around 8,000 candidates from different parties will contest the election for 543 Lok Sabha seats in 2024. Out of 1.4 billion people, 70% are eligible to vote in the general election, which appears to be a very large number to manage. Thanks to the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) which has made the voting process easy to conduct and quick to announce the result.  Had the EVM not been implemented, months would have been exhausted to conduct it.

India’s journey of casting voting percentage started with 44% in 1951 and increased to 67% in 2019. It means 33% of the population is still not aware of the democratic rights and power of an elected government. We have stepped into the era of artificial intelligence (AI), but we are nurturing one third of the population who is illiterate and uneducated. Therefore, it raises a serious concern about the apathy of the government toward upgrading the education system to assimilate the unaware chunk of the population.

However, in order to conduct a fair and transparent election, the Election Commission of India invited global Election Management Bodies (EBMs) to witness the election procedure and its conduct for the first time in the Lok Sabha election in 2024. 75 delegates from 23 countries around the world have come to watch how electoral duties are performed by Indian institutions. This initiative of the Election Commission of India (ECI) will put a stop to the apprehensions of opposition parties regarding the transparency of the elections. 

As per the press note issued by the ECI on May 18, 2024, a staggering amount of seizures worth 9,000 crores have been announced in concerted efforts to crackdown on inducements. An in-house app is developed by the Election Seizure Management System (ESMS) to keep tabs on the expenditures of the candidates in the election.

No system could be perfect to manage 970 million people in 44 days, but efforts are worth appreciating to make it appear like a free, fair, and transparent election in toto.