Elections to the 17th Lok Sabha was conducted in seven phases across the country from April 11 to May 19. There are currently 543 constituencies.
Polling in Tamil Nadu for the 39 Lok Sabha seats along with 18 Assembly seats were held on April 18 recording close to 72% voter turnout in the single phase election.
Key Highlights of 17th Lok Sabha Election
- The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) leader Narendra Modi was sworn in as 15th Prime Minister for a second consecutive five-year term.
- The highest NOTA (none of the above) vote share of 5.04% in Lok Sabha election was reported from Gopalganj in Bihar.
- The Lowest NOTA vote share of 0.17% in Lok Sabha reported from Bidar in Karnataka
- Biju Janta Dal (BJD’s) Chandrani Murmu, who won from Keonjhar in Odisha, became youngest candidate elected in history of Lok Sabha at 25 years, 11 months and 8 days.
- Bharatiya Janta Party’s (BJP) Bholanath won Machhlishahr seat in Uttar Pradesh by just 181 votes which is the lowest margin recorded in the Lok Sabha elections.
NOTA
- None of the above
- One of the options provided in EVM
- NOTA was introduced in December, 2013 in India
- No power for NOTA, because if 99% votes for NOTA and 1% votes for a candidate, then the candidate declared as winner.
- But in future, if a provision was made in such a way that certain percentage of NOTA votes would lead to cancellation of election, then NOTA will be an good option for voters.
EVM vs paper ballot
EVM
- Results can be declared faster
- EVM consists of IC Chip that is one time programmable
- EVMs are not networked by any wireless system
- EVM are installed with real time clock
- It has secure source code as it was manufactured by ECIL and BEL
- EVMs are found to be easy to use
Paper Ball0t:
- No Need to fear for hacking
- Loosers can’t blame the voting system
cVigil Mobile Application
- It was launched by Election Commission
- The app allows anyone in the election-bound state to report violations of Model Code of Conduct (MCC) that comes into effect from the date of announcement of elections and goes on till a day after the polls.
- Unique Internet –based beta version of the application which stands for “Citizens’ Vigil”.
- It was first operationalized in the assembly polls of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh.
- The vigilant citizen has to click a picture or record a video of upto two minutes’ duration to be uploaded on the app
VVPAT Electronic Voting Machine
- VVPAT means Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail.
- For the first time in this Lok Sabha election, all booths are equipped with VVPAT machines along with the electronic voting machines to ensure the voters that their votes go to their preferred candidate.
- The voter can proceed to cast his/her vote on the EVM and Once the vote is cast, a red light will glow next to the button he/she pressed, following which a VVPAT will show up on the machine kept next to the EVM
- VVPAT machine prints a slip containing the name of the candidate and the corresponding election symbol and automatically drops it in a sealed box.
- After being visible to the voter from a glass case in the VVPAT for seven seconds, the ballot slip will be cut and dropped into the drop box in the VVPAT machine and a beep will be heard. VVPAT machines can be accessed by polling officers only.
- In case there is a mismatch between the vote cast and the VVPAT, the voter can approach the presiding officer and lodge a complaint
