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Photos | Lok Sabha 2019: The world’s largest election in images

With nearly one million polling stations and an electorate of almost 900 million, the 2019 Lok Sabha elections have been a dizzying exercise marked by complexity and wonder. And despite media narratives, when the world’s largest democracy comes out to vote, there’s no single decisive moment. From polling officers trekking alongside donkeys who carry electronic voting machines (EVMs) to remote villages on the Indo-Nepal border; to commoners and policemen struggling with the mini dust storm raised by a politician’s helicopter; and the incredible story of a retired school teacher who has voted in every Indian general election since 1951, these are the moments to remember and cherish as another crucial election season drew to a close.

Updated on: May 24, 2019 5:47 PM IST

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Polling workers trek to transport Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) and Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines to a remote polling station –one of a million organised –in Srikhola at an altitude of 2,800 metres above sea level near the India-Nepal border in West Bengal. From cities and villages to remote islands and dense jungles, the 2019 polls saw polling last seven phases spread over 39 days. (Diptendu Dutta / AFP)

Updated on May 24, 2019 5:47 PM

Polling workers trek to transport Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) and Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines to a remote polling station –one of a million organised –in Srikhola at an altitude of 2,800 metres above sea level near the India-Nepal border in West Bengal. From cities and villages to remote islands and dense jungles, the 2019 polls saw polling last seven phases spread over 39 days. (Diptendu Dutta / AFP)

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Police personnel patrol on motorcycles during voting in Pataliputra constituency, Bihar. The polls represented the franchise of over 900 million voters –more than 10% of the world’s population. This sheer scale was one reason of the seven phase process. Others were the amount of personnel involved and security sensitivities across constituencies. (AP Dube / HT Photo)

Updated on May 24, 2019 5:47 PM

Police personnel patrol on motorcycles during voting in Pataliputra constituency, Bihar. The polls represented the franchise of over 900 million voters –more than 10% of the world’s population. This sheer scale was one reason of the seven phase process. Others were the amount of personnel involved and security sensitivities across constituencies. (AP Dube / HT Photo)

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A woman leaves after casting her vote at a polling station in Majuli, a large river island in the Brahmaputra river, in Assam. Indian women were expected perhaps for the first time in the country’s history outnumber men in coming out to vote this time. The vote gender gap in 2014 was of 1.8% at 65.3% women against 67.1% men voters –down from 8.4% in 2004. (Adnan Abidi / REUTERS)

Updated on May 24, 2019 5:47 PM

A woman leaves after casting her vote at a polling station in Majuli, a large river island in the Brahmaputra river, in Assam. Indian women were expected perhaps for the first time in the country’s history outnumber men in coming out to vote this time. The vote gender gap in 2014 was of 1.8% at 65.3% women against 67.1% men voters –down from 8.4% in 2004. (Adnan Abidi / REUTERS)

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Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) East Delhi candidate Atishi breaks down while reading a derogatory pamphlet allegedly distributed by the BJP's Gautam Gambhir against her. While mud-slinging remained unavoidable, AAP’s attempts at a bigger presence in Parliament were also swept away by celebrity candidates from the BJP and Congress. (Biplov Bhuyan / HT Photo)

Updated on May 24, 2019 5:47 PM

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) East Delhi candidate Atishi breaks down while reading a derogatory pamphlet allegedly distributed by the BJP's Gautam Gambhir against her. While mud-slinging remained unavoidable, AAP’s attempts at a bigger presence in Parliament were also swept away by celebrity candidates from the BJP and Congress. (Biplov Bhuyan / HT Photo)

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To counter the BJP’s sweep over the Hindi heartland and Uttar Pradesh in particular, expectations were high for a secular front by opposition parties. A ‘Mahagathbandhan’ came this way on April 19 in Mainpuri when long-time political foes, the Samajwadi Party (SP) patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party BSP supremo Mayawati burried the hatchet. (HT Photo)

Updated on May 24, 2019 5:47 PM

To counter the BJP’s sweep over the Hindi heartland and Uttar Pradesh in particular, expectations were high for a secular front by opposition parties. A ‘Mahagathbandhan’ came this way on April 19 in Mainpuri when long-time political foes, the Samajwadi Party (SP) patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party BSP supremo Mayawati burried the hatchet. (HT Photo)

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Congress President Rahul Gandhi with General Secretary of the of eastern UP Priyanka Gandhi at a Mahila Workers Meeting in Amethi. Priyanka’s elevation as AICC general secretary and her extensive campaigning across the state earned the Congress a part in UP’s poll narrative from which it was absent after being kept out of the BSP-SP tie-up. (ANI Photo)

Updated on May 24, 2019 5:47 PM

Congress President Rahul Gandhi with General Secretary of the of eastern UP Priyanka Gandhi at a Mahila Workers Meeting in Amethi. Priyanka’s elevation as AICC general secretary and her extensive campaigning across the state earned the Congress a part in UP’s poll narrative from which it was absent after being kept out of the BSP-SP tie-up. (ANI Photo)

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Voters take a selfie after casting their votes in Mumbai. Stagnant farm incomes, the double-whammy of demonetisation and GST and alarming figures on joblessness were issues pitched against a narrative of nationalism, populist measures and the need for India to respond to threats that may rise from beyond its borders. (Dhiraj Singh / Bloomberg)

Updated on May 24, 2019 5:47 PM

Voters take a selfie after casting their votes in Mumbai. Stagnant farm incomes, the double-whammy of demonetisation and GST and alarming figures on joblessness were issues pitched against a narrative of nationalism, populist measures and the need for India to respond to threats that may rise from beyond its borders. (Dhiraj Singh / Bloomberg)

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Shyam Saran Negi, 102, independent India’s first voter who has participated in all elections since 1951, looks out from his house ahead of the final phase. The election was also being seen as a referendum on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, after losses to regional parties in key state elections indicated waning support and a possibility of serious completion in this election. (Cheena Kapoor / REUTERS)

Updated on May 24, 2019 5:47 PM

Shyam Saran Negi, 102, independent India’s first voter who has participated in all elections since 1951, looks out from his house ahead of the final phase. The election was also being seen as a referendum on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, after losses to regional parties in key state elections indicated waning support and a possibility of serious completion in this election. (Cheena Kapoor / REUTERS)

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Supporters of SP president Akhilesh Yadav seen through dust as a helicopter lands at a rally venue in Uttar Pradesh. Once the dust did settle on May 23 and election counting began, it appeared clear that the BJP juggernaut hadn’t yet lost steam and instead gained momentum in the post-Balakot environment, returning with 303 seats and bettering 2014’s 282. (Rajesh Kumar Singh / AP)

Updated on May 24, 2019 5:47 PM

Supporters of SP president Akhilesh Yadav seen through dust as a helicopter lands at a rally venue in Uttar Pradesh. Once the dust did settle on May 23 and election counting began, it appeared clear that the BJP juggernaut hadn’t yet lost steam and instead gained momentum in the post-Balakot environment, returning with 303 seats and bettering 2014’s 282. (Rajesh Kumar Singh / AP)

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