Indian elections: millions of voters, gallons of ink

India's general election is the world's largest democratic exercise. Here are some facts and figures on the five-phase ballot that began on Thursday.

India's general election is the world's largest democratic exercise. Here are some facts and figures on the five-phase ballot that began on Thursday:

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714,000,000 registered voters

6,100,000 security and civil personnel on election duty

828,804 polling booths nationwide

1 -- Number of voters required for a 100 percent turnout at Junagadh polling station in Gujarat, which caters to a lone constituent

543 -- Number of elected seats in lower house of parliament

131 -- Number of seats reserved for tribals or lower-caste candidates

5,180 metres -- Elevation above sea level of India's highest polling booth in Fastan village in Kashmir's Ladakh region

26 kilometres -- Distance from Fastan polling booth to nearest road

1,368,430 -- Number of electronic voting machines

10,000 tonnes -- Estimated amount of paper that will be saved by the use of electronic voting machines

157 years -- Combined age of two main candidates for prime minister, Manmohan Singh and L.K. Advani

100,000,000,000 rupees (two billion dollars) -- Total estimated cost of 2009 election, according to a survey by the Centre
for Media Studies (CMS)

2,500,000 rupees -- Legal limit of campaign spending by individual candidates

25,000,000,000 rupees -- Combined amount candidates will spend on illegal vote buying, according to CMS estimate

200,000 dollars -- Amount reportedly paid by ruling Congress party to secure campaign rights to "Jai Ho" (Victory), the Oscar-winning song from "Slumdog Millionaire"

2,000,000 -- Bottles of indelible ink used to mark voters' fingers to prevent double voting