India will hold a general election between April 16 and May 13.

Mar 2, 2009
(Reuters)

The main battle will be between the Congress-led coalition government and the main opposition bloc, headed by the mainstream Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Here are some interesting facts and figures:

BIG NUMBERS

Around 714 million people -- more than twice the population of the United States -- are eligible to vote in the world's biggest democratic exercise.

More than 800,000 polling stations will be set up for a five-phased vote over several weeks, watched over by 2.1 million security personnel.

ELEPHANTS TO COMPUTERS

Around 1.1 million electronic voting machines will be used across the nation. These were first introduced for a general election in 2004, when millions of illiterate voters pressed a button next to a symbol of the party of their choice.

Ballot boxes were also used -- some were transported by elephants and camels to remote voters.

In 1996, before the introduction of electronic voting machines, 8,000 metric tonnes of paper were used to print ballots.

THE LAW AND POLITICS

Around a quarter of the 543 lower house elected MPs had criminal cases pending against them in 2004. More than half of the cases were for serious offences including murder, rape and large-scale corruption.

"ANGLOS"

Two more MPs can be appointed by the president to ensure the representation of India's tiny Anglo-Indian community.

Anglo-Indians who stayed in India after independence, colloquially known as "Anglos," trace part of their ancestry to European, mostly British, descent through the male line. Many are the progeny of British officials and soldiers who intermarried with Indians in the colonial era.