12 interesting facts about world's largest election in India

With the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections all set kick off on April 11, here are some interesting facts about India's general elections.

- The first Lok Sabha elections in 1952 cost around Rs104.5 million, while the 2014 general elections cost almost Rs38.7 billion (Rs3,870.3 crore).

- The first Lok Sabha elections were contested for 489 seats. The number of constituencies was increased to 543 in 1977.

- A total of 53 parties and 533 Independents contested for the 489 seats in the 1952 elections. In 2014, 464 political parties and 3,234 candidates contested for the 543 seats.

- The total number of voters for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections has gone up by 84.3 million since the 2014 polls.

- The new voters have taken the total number of voters to 900 million of which around 15 million are in the age group of 18-19 years.

- A total of 10 lakh polling stations would be set up this time as compared to around nine lakh in 2014.

- In a first, candidates with criminal antecedents will have to publish information in this regard in newspapers and through TV channels on three occasions during the campaign period.

- The Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) and postal ballot papers would for the first time carry the photograph of all the candidates to help voters identify the political leaders in the fray.

- The cost of the Lok Sabha elections is borne by the Government of India. Only the honorariums of the poll observers are paid by the Election Commission.

- When general elections are held simultaneously with Assembly polls, the cost is shared by the Centre and the respective state governments on a 50:50 basis.

- In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Voter-verified Paper Audit Trails (VVPATs) were used in eight constituencies. This time, VVPATs will be used in all the constituencies.

- In Lok Sabha elections, the None of the Above or NOTA option was first used in 2014.