General elections are expected to be held in India between April and May 2024 to elect 543 members of the Lok Sabha.

Background

The tenure of the

17th Lok Sabha The 17th Lok Sabha was formed by the members elected in the 2019 Indian general election. Elections, all across India, were conducted in seven phases from 11 April 2019 to 19 May 2019 by the Election Commission of India. Counting started offi ...

is scheduled to end on 16 June 2024. The previous general elections were held in April–May 2019. After the election,

National Democratic Alliance National Democratic Alliance (NDA) () is a Centre-right politics, centre-right to Right-wing politics, right-wing and Conservatism, conservative Indian big tent political alliance led by the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It was foun ...

, led by Bharatiya Janata Party, formed the union government, with Narendra Modi continuing as Prime Minister.

Electoral system

All 543 elected

MPs MPS, M.P.S., MPs, or mps may refer to: Science and technology * Mucopolysaccharidosis, genetic lysosomal storage disorder * Mononuclear phagocyte system, cells in mammalian biology * Myofascial pain syndrome * Metallopanstimulin * Potassium perox ...

are elected from single-member constituencies using first-past-the-post voting. The 104th amendment to the constitution abolished the two seats that were reserved for the Anglo-Indian community. Eligible voters must be Indian citizens, 18 years or older, an ordinary resident of the polling area of the constituency and registered to vote (name included in the electoral rolls), possess a valid voter identification card issued by the

Election Commission of India The Election Commission of India (ECI) is a constitutional body. It was established by the Constitution of India to conduct and regulate elections in the country. Article 324 of the Constitution provides that the power of superintendence, di ...

or equivalent. Some people convicted of electoral or other offenses are barred from voting. Article 83 of the Constitution of India requires elections to the Lok Sabha be held once every five years.

Election schedule

Election schedule for 18th Lok Sabha will be announced by

(ECI). The tenure of

is scheduled to end on 16 June 2024.

Parties and alliances

The politics of India has become increasingly bipolar in the run-up to the 2024 Indian general elections with two major alliances emerging; the incumbent

and the opposition

Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance The Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (I.N.D.I.A; ) is a big tent political alliance of 28 political parties in India led by the Indian National Congress. The primary objective of the alliance is to defeat the ruling National Dem ...

. There are 6 national parties contesting the 2024 Indian general elections: Bharatiya Janata Party, Indian National Congress, Communist Party of India (Marxist),

Bahujan Samaj Party The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is a national level political party in India that was formed to represent Bahujans (literally means "community in majority"), referring to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes (OBC), alon ...

, National People's Party and

Aam Aadmi Party The Aam Aadmi Party (; AAP) is a political party in India, as one of the national political parties. The AAP was founded in November 2012 by Arvind Kejriwal and his then-companions following the 2011 Indian anti-corruption movement, popular ...

with all except the BSP being a part of one of the alliances.

National Democratic Alliance

The National Democratic Alliance abbreviated as NDA (

IAST The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) is a transliteration scheme that allows the lossless romanisation of Indic scripts as employed by Sanskrit and related Indic languages. It is based on a scheme that emerged during ...

: Rāṣhṭrīya Jānātāntrik Gaṭhabandhan) is a big-tent, mostly centre-right to

right-wing Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, authorit ...

political alliance A political group is a group consisting of political parties or legislators of aligned ideologies. A technical group is similar to a political group, but with members of differing ideologies. International terms Equivalent terms are used differ ...

led by the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance

The Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance is a big-tent, mostly centre-left to left-wing bloc of opposition parties.

Other major parties and alliances

leader Mayawati announced that her party will contest the election on its own strength in most states and ally with other non-BJP, non-Congress parties in Punjab and Haryana. On 11 May 2023, Biju Janata Dal leader and Chief Minister of Odisha Naveen Patnaik said that his party will go solo for the Lok Sabha polls.

Party campaigns

Bharatiya Janata Party

The national executive meeting of BJP held on 16 and 17 January 2023 saw the party reaffirm its faith in Prime Minister Narendra Modi and extend the tenure of BJP national president

J. P. Nadda Jagat Prakash Nadda (born 2 December 1960) is an Indian lawyer and politician serving as the president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) since 20 January 2020. He was the BJP's working president from June 2019 to January 2020. Nadda is the ...

. Charting out the BJP’s strategy for the upcoming polls, PM Modi in his speech to party workers said they should reach out to every section of society, including the marginalised and minority communities, “without electoral considerations”. Following the 2023 Legislative Assembly elections, Modi debuted the slogan "Modi Ki Guarantee" for the 2024 polls.

Indian National Congress

The Congress campaign was launched from Nagpur at a huge rally in which over 1 million people were expected to attend in Nagpur,

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...

on 28 December 2023. This rally also marked the 138th Congress Foundation Day and was being held to energise the party cadre for the 2024 Indian general election. Party workers from all over the state are were called to join the rally.

Candidates

NDA PM candidate

The prime ministerial candidate for the 2024 general election of the alliance is the incumbent

Prime Minister of India The prime minister of India (IAST: ) is the head of government of the Republic of India. Executive authority is vested in the prime minister and their chosen Council of Ministers, despite the president of India being the nominal head of the ...

Narendra Modi.

I.N.D.I.A PM candidate

The prime ministerial candidate for the 2024 general election of the INDIA bloc will be decided after the 2024 polls.

Surveys and polls

According to an India TV-CNX poll released on 3 October 2023, 61% of participants preferred the incumbent Narendra Modi (BJP) followed by Rahul Gandhi (INC) at 21% as the next

Opinion polls

References

{{Indian general election, 2024 General India General elections in India