General elections are expected to be held in India by May 2029 to elect the members of the 19th

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, also known as the House of the People, is the lower house of Parliament of India which is Bicameralism, bicameral, where the upper house is Rajya Sabha. Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by a ...

, the lower house of Parliament.

Background

The tenure of the

18th Lok Sabha The 18th Lok Sabha was formed after general elections were held in India over seven phases from 19 April to 1 June 2024, to elect all members from 543 constituencies of the Lok Sabha. The votes were counted, and the results were declared on 4 ...

is scheduled to end in June 2029. The previous general elections were held in April–May–June 2024. After the election, the National Democratic Alliance, led by the

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; , ) is a political party in India and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's ...

, formed the Union Government, with

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician who has served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India since 2014. Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Par ...

continuing in his third term as

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Delimitation

The next

delimitation Electoral boundary delimitation (or simply boundary delimitation or delimitation) is the drawing of boundaries of electoral precincts and related divisions involved in elections, such as Federated state, states, counties or other municipalities ...

in India is due after the first census following the year 2026. According to the 84th Amendment to the Constitution of India, the current freeze on the delimitation of constituencies is set to continue until the results of the first census taken after the year 2026 are published.

Women's reservation

The introduction of women's reservation in the

is set to occur after the delimitation exercise based on the census following the year 2026. According to the 106th Amendment Act, 33% of the total seats will be directly allocated to women in the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies.

Schedule

Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar has indicated that the 2029 elections would be over by the end of April to prevent heat from affecting voter turnout. Until 2004, the general elections were conducted between the cooler months of December and March.

Electoral system

MPs are elected from single-member constituencies using

first-past-the-post voting First-past-the-post (FPTP)—also called choose-one, first-preference plurality (FPP), or simply plurality—is a single-winner voting rule. Voters mark one candidate as their favorite, or first-preference, and the candidate with more first- ...

. 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 established by Constitution of India, the Constitution of the Republic of India empowered to conduct free and fair elections in the Republic of India. It is headed by a Chief Ele ...

or equivalent. Some people convicted of electoral or other offences are barred from voting. Article 83 of the

Constitution of India The Constitution of India is the supreme law of India, legal document of India, and the longest written national constitution in the world. The document lays down the framework that demarcates fundamental political code, structure, procedures ...

requires elections to the Lok Sabha be held once every five years.

References

{{Indian elections

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

General A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air force, air and space forces, marines or naval infantry. In some usages, the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colone ...

General elections in India