The Indian General Elections 2014 were scheduled to be held in nine phases throughout the country. The biggest ever elections in the world, began from 7 April 2014 and continued till 12 May 2014. According to the Election Commission of India (ECI), the 16th Parliamentary Elections had around 100 million first-time voters. Polling took place at approximately 930,000 polling stations in the country, as compared to 830,866 polling stations set up during the 2009 Parliamentary Elections. The Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) have an added feature in the form of the NOTA (none of the above) option. The fate of all the political parties will be declared on 16 May 2014.
The 2014 General Elections are expected to mark the beginning of a new era, as a political party other than the Indian National Congress (INC) might emerge as a winner. The INC had a clean sweep in the last General Elections held in 2009, in India. The Congress party won 206 Lok Sabha (Lower House of the Parliament) seats out of a total of 543 seats across the country. The Congress secured 28.55% votes out of 63.58% votes in the 2009 General Elections, whereas the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) could bag only 18.80% votes in its favor. The 15th Parliamentary Elections were held from 16 April 2009 and 13 May 2009, in five phases across the nation.