New Delhi, April 19 -- The 6-week-long general election starts on April 19 and results will be announced on June 4. The voters, who comprise over 10% of the world's population, will elect 543 members for the lower house of Parliament for a five-year term.

The polls will be held in seven phases and ballots cast at more than a million polling stations. Each phase will last a single day with several constituencies across multiple states voting that day. The staggered polling allows the government to deploy tens of thousands of troops to prevent violence and transport election officials and voting machines.

India's Supreme Court Thursday reserved its judgment on the petitions seeking directions to tally Voter-Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (V...