 It's a big day today for all of us at ECI and I would like to formally welcome you to this press conference to announce the schedule for general elections and some state assemblies. It's my privilege to introduce the Honble Chief Election Commissioner, Sri Rajiv Kumar Ji, the Honble Election Commissioner, Sri Ganesh Kumar, and the Honble Election Commissioner, Dr. Sugbir Singh Sandhu. Also on the dais today are senior officials who have been a part of team ECI in the past two years and have played a crucial role in the run-up to the general elections, namely senior deputy election commissioners Sri Dharmendra Sharma and Sri Nitesh Vyas. Also DECs Sri Hudesh Kumar, Sri Ajay Bhadu, Sri RK Gupta and Sri Manoj Sahu, another crucial team member has been DGIT, Sri Mati, Nita Verma. Also on the dais is our joint director media Anu Chandak, who is familiar to most of you here. I am B Narayanan, DG media for the commission. The format is as follows, there will be opening remarks by the CEC along with the presentation. We will share the PDF copy of the presentation with all of you after this event is over. The PC is also being live streamed on X along with the slides and live streamed on our YouTube and Facebook. Following this PowerPoint, there will be a question and answer session. When you want to ask a question, raise your hand. Wait for a chance to be called by me to put your question. I will direct the mic to come to you. When it's your turn, introduce yourself and your organization and then ask your question. I request you to be brief and ask only one question at a time. Please keep your mobiles on silent mode. Sir, I request you to deliver your opening remarks. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Narayanan. Good afternoon, friends. My recently joined Distinguined Colleges. Let me introduce you to them. Ganesh Kumar, on my right and on your left, and Shri Sukrit Singh Santuji, on my left. Senior officials from Election Commission of India, friends from media, and friends from different countries of the country. First of all, greetings to all of you. You are all welcome to this press conference. As you see, our team is now complete. All three of us are here, and we are fully prepared. So now our request is to all the voters to get inked. Please, the entire team in the ECI is ready to ink the voters. Please join us. I think this is the most awaited press conference in this part of the year. We address you at a precious moment. When we as a nation are said to reiterate our pledge to electoral democracy, when Indians will together express their will once again. This is a historic opportunity for all of us. By the way, this year also marks a pivotal moment in the global landscape of democracies. 2024 is a year of elections across the world. Over five dozen nations and people will vote across the hemispheres, across the deadlines. However, India's elections have been like a police star, both for its quantity and quality. And I'll elaborate it and detail in this conference. Let me say in the very beginning that it is our promise to deliver a national election in a manner that we add to our global shine and remain a beckon for electoral democracies across the world. We are committed to give the nation a truly festive democratic environment. Friends, the term of 17th Lok Sabha is due to expire on 16th June 24. The term of legislative assemblies of Andhra Pradesh, Ulissa, Arunachal, Sikkim are also due to expire in June 24. Chammu Kashmir assembly may be chunau duhae. We in the commission understand with humility, with all humility at our command, that every election is a new test and failure is not an option. The entire election machinery has been trained on all aspects of election management. I had myself personally interacted with over 800 district magistrates across the length and breadth of the country. We have interacted with the SPs, DMs, commissioners, range IGs, political parties, enforcement agencies in Delhi and also while visiting the states. And after we have interacted with all of them in the entire state, we are confident that we will make a memorable, independent, and unparalleled election with the help of a public official. Before I share the schedule, I would like to tell you that with the help of a public official, we have prepared ourselves for such a large country. The largest election in the world, logistics and material production is a huge challenge for us. So let us show you what is the magnitude by which we are doing these elections. We have 97 crore registered voters, more than the combined voters of a few continents put together, America, Australia, all many put together. Over 10.5 lakh polling stations and how many people conduct it? 1.5 crore polling officials and security officials conduct those elections. More than 55 lakh EVMs, 4 lakh vacals. And what have we done so far? 17 general elections to the parliament. We have done more than 400 assembly elections. This is a legacy of the election commission. 16 presidential elections, 16 vice presidential elections, a truly gold standard. It's a gold standard in the entire election management. Friends, there is a qualitative leaf-frog which commission is ensuring, which would be shown by the outcomes of the 11 state elections which we have held recently. In the last 11.5 years, 11 elections have taken place in the state assemblies. And today, in 2024, we are going along this path to show you the outcomes of these elections. They were peaceful, they were free of violence. There was violence in one or two states, but there was no violence there either. Near zero ruples. And the noise of the campaigning of the political party, we were able to see even that. Court cases were reduced. The cases were reduced, the cases were reduced. Seizures were increased. And there was a huge action on fake news. So in the last two years, what have we done to make it more robust? We will show you today. And how we will make it better, we will show you. Where we want to reach, how we want to deliver this election, we will also show you in the last slide. Now, how much preparation we have made for the electoral cycle, we want to tell you before the schedule. If we look at it, as an input, our electoral role should be pure. This is the foundation for any good election. The one who should be in the voting is there and the one who should not is not. We have worked hard in the electoral role. As an input, material, manpower, technology, training, there are so many things. As a process, the disruptive challenges are muscle power, money power, misinformation, MCC, violation, or reaching out to the missing voters, urban apathy, youth apathy, or overcoming operational challenges in which reaching in inaccessible areas in this white country. And what outcomes we want, that is what we will tell you a little later also. So the first input is a mosaic of the voters' pictures of the country. What does it show? It's a very diverse mosaic. 96.8 crores are the total electors in the country, of which 49.7 crore are male and 47.1 crore are female. And the young voters, we worked hard in the last year, to vote for the 1.82 crores first-time voters this time in elections, are in our electoral roles. And if we look at this in the years of 20 to 29 years, they are still young, they haven't grown up yet. So the 29 out of 18 are about 21.5 lakh voters. 1 crore, 80 lakh, 18 out of 19, and 20 out of 19, 19.74 crores. That is 21.5 crore voters, absolutely young, who will run into democracy and decide their future by themselves because they are the biggest stakeholders in the democracy because they have a larger time to contribute in the society. If we look at it very inclusively, there are 88.4 lakh persons with disabilities who are part of our voter list. We have made a special effort to take all our voters in our electoral roles. There are 82 lakh people who are over 85 years old. And they are our proud voters. We feel very proud to have them with us. And among them, 2.8 lakh people in the country are more than 100 years old voters who are in our electoral roles. So the Mosaic is, there are also Transcenders, 48,000. So Mosaic is like 18 to 19, 20 to 28, 85 Transcenders, persons with disabilities, and in the entire country, length and breadth of the country. This rigorous procedure, how much effort does it take to make it? I want to show you this that during the preparation of electoral roles political parties are involved. So that no one asks us that you have made an electoral role by yourself and we haven't even told you. So when the electoral role preparation starts, we make a draft publication. We give 2 copies free of cost to the political parties. After that, as much as Form 6, Form 7, Form 8 the modification of the deletion of the new name has changed, the house has changed. We share the copies of all of them. We make the minutes for that. And this time, we have strengthened that if the political parties want to put in the BLOs, then they should. And across the length and breadth of the country, all the district magistrates, we are absolutely confident that silently we were working. Everyone in the political parties, in every district, at least one, two, three meetings have been held. They have shown all the draft roles. After showing them, all the objections have been fulfilled and made minutes. Friends, we are very confident that and we are conscious that a very solid electoral role is the foundation stone on any election and we are ready to go with this. We have also worked on the women voters. The gender ratio of women voters has increased to 948, which is again a very healthy sign of women participation increasing in our electoral cycle. There are 12 states in the country where there is a gender ratio of 1,000 to over 1,000. That is, women voters have a higher number than males. And as I just told you, 1.89 new voters have joined. Out of them, in 18 to 19, there are 85,000 female voters. So they are going side by side. And this is again a very healthy sign that women are also equally participating in our election. And as a women participation, as a youth participation is another area where the commission is very conscious and commission is also consistently focusing on. I told you that 1.8 crore is 19 crore from 20 to 19 and the age of anyone, in January 1st, 2024, was not 18 years old. We took the name of it in advance in the application in any time of 2024 whose age will be 18 years old. And you would be happy to note that out of 13.4 lakh advance applications which have come to us, around 5 to 6 lakhs are such who will complete the age of 18 by 1st of April, 2024. And they will also be our voters by that time. The role would be as much updated on 1st of April that no one is missing. We have put the youth in a big box to join with us in this work. We believe that youth will not only vote, but will also be our ambassadors. The influencers will also join with us. They will also bring their 10 friends along with the youth. And this time they are convinced because of their outreach activities that they will join with us. Friends, when we are calling the voters on our booth then our duty is to keep our booth ready for them. How should we prepare? There will be water to drink on every booth there will be a toilet there will be a male and female there will be a signage there will be a ramp for there will be a wheelchair there will be a help desk there will be a water facility there will be a centre there will be a shed there will be sufficient light there will be minimum basic facilities would be available at all the polling stations and these polling stations will be set up across the length and breadth of Arunachal's jungle and Meghalaya's wettest region election commission in every corner of the country to make the people strong our polling station will take our personal and we will take democracy to every corner of the country and we are sure that we would make it a very overwhelming experience for our voters and then the voters delight that they should get all these things then how would we ensure that it is also inclusive inclusive in the sense 85 plus voters we are ready to go home and take the vote before the nomination we will send form 12D in some part of the country there has been voting from home in the assembly elections there has not been any elections this is the first time in the country that this situation will be the same that the people who are over 45 years old who are over 40 years old with disability who are over 40% who have disabilities we will send form to all of them if they opt that they do not want to come to the booth they want to do it from home then we will go home although our experience is that most people want to come to the booth because they have consistently been part of our part of our democracy they will get the speed of volunteers and wheelchairs now when they make this booth we have trained our personal teams very well they are sentinels of democracy all our employees will be ready for that wherever it takes they will walk an extra mile so that boaters don't have to mile they will go in the mountains in the jungle in the river on the horse on the bridge they are sentinels of democracy all our employees will be ready for that wherever it takes they will walk an extra mile so that boaters don't have to mile they will go in the mountains in the jungle in the river on the horse on the bridge on the helicopter on the elephant they will go in the snow on the mule they will reach everywhere I will talk about urban apathy in the future when we work so hard we see that many people don't come to give a boat it is an example for them to understand how important it is to give a boat if we can make a booth for 10 people then you can go down in the radius of 2 km you have a booth friends we are also very conscious about the sustainable elections as our responsibility towards the environment so environmentally sustainable elections for this we have given directions to our election machinery waste management should not be shown after polling collect it and send them to various disposal it is part of the material arrangement do minimal use of paper maximum e-books are available you can watch it on our website e-book is available on every subject more and more carbon we can do at least recycling less and less paperwork all that is to the environment we are also greatly leveraging technology in 3 verticals for the help of the voter for the help of the election management agencies machinery and also for the political parties and candidates any voter in the whole country where is his epic number where is the booth his epic download if he has a mobile number he can download his or her mobile any information about BLO one can go to the voter helpline you can know about what kind of a candidate you have in your constituency who are contesting so there is an application called know your candidate so there is no criminal background of that candidate there are no cases there are no assets there are no capabilities all these things all these things in the application of KYC they will have the right to see the voters and whoever has a criminal record of any candidate he will have to give it to the newspapers he will have to give it to the TV he will have to tell the political party that in that constituency if you have to stand in the criminal candidate background you did not get it now tell me what is the basis of the selection of a candidate who has a criminal background then in order to clean up the entire system we want to use the technology with the help of the citizens citizens be please vigilant so in the Cvigil app if you have to complain to any citizen to any voter anywhere there is a case of sharing money there is a case of sharing freebie there is a case of access campaigning just take a photo and type text send it to us we will capture your longitude and latitude ourselves where you are standing we will understand from your mobile and send you your team within 100 minutes we will let you do your complaint friends we have some challenges I would like to discuss the challenges in front of you and I would like to tell you how we will fix it so we have mainly 4 challenges 4M muscle money misinformation and MCC violations essentially 4 types of broad our processes and within this the process will start and the election commission will have 4 things how to control muscle power how to control money power how to control the many of misinformation and how to control the violations which are done or at least to be done under MCC so coming to the muscle muscle to control power adequate number adequate number of CAPF would be deployed 24-7 we are establishing we are determined to reduce muscle power in elections there shouldn't be any hindrance and there shouldn't be any bloodbath wherever there is hindrance whether it is pre-poll or during campaigning or post-poll we are committed to kind of be very, very alive to this situation and whatever we have to do we will do it so that this provision doesn't remain in every district there is a control room which will have 5 types of feeds TV social media webcasting which is on the booths 1-9-5-0 the line and grievance grievance is portal so one senior officer would be available in the control rooms in every district to look at these 5 feeds from anywhere or CVGIL, 6th CVGIL from anywhere there should be a strict action everywhere across the country we have given a very strict so that district magistrates SSPs should not be in the area of hindrance the non-valuable warrants today the police have already been able to execute along with our widgets along with the history sheeters there is also a network of check posts which have been set up in the international border in the interstate border and on the nodes from where some kinds of irregular illegal goods can move across the states in some international borders there is also a drone based checking which will happen we are fully committed that there should be no use of hindrance we have given a strict guidance to the district magistrates that as many as 3 years should be changed and accountability starts from the head of the district not below it is their job to see what is below in any process the volunteers and contractual staff should not be used in many states temporary volunteers and contractual staff should not be used in any stage double voting is also a complaint of impersonation it has been given a very strict guidance that if impersonation cases come then in the section of the rp act take action against them friends with a lot of determination we want to give the freedom of violence there is no limit to violence Raspati Mahatma Gandhi Ji had said I am against violence because the solution is for a very short time and the hate created by it is forever only peace is everlasting violence doesn't solve anything we will request everyone all political parties all candidates that they must be very very cautious of this point will be ruthless if anywhere the violence happens coming to the money you know I have already shown you that the last 11 elections in the state and because of that we are talking about it we are talking to you from the strength of our outcomes the cash movement of close to 34 crore rupees was restricted in every state Rajasthan, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh Gujarat, Himachal, Mijoram Tirpura, Chhattisgarh in every state in the first election 200, 400, 500, 700% total 3400 crore is around 835% higher the use of money the use of money the use of money is more in some states the use of money is more in some states we are aware fully that there are differential vulnerabilities in each state some states have more violence, some states have more money, some states are more kind of a geographical problems so whichever problem pertains to a particular state based on this differential analysis we would be having a differential level of treatment for that state we will not let the use of money for this we have bettered enforcement agencies in all states in Delhi we have bettered heads of the agencies what have they said we have told them that the freebies cash cookers machines whatever kind of freebies in which state they have complaints they have to stop them 100% to stop them do analytics based work so whom have we directed GST excise state police all agencies, income tax customs, coast guards wherever or wherever freebies GST would be doing the ebay based analytics to see if there is a trend of spurt in the demand for the FMCG in certain areas banks would look at if there is a demand spurt in demand of the cash in the chests so national NPCIL will look at if there is a spurt in demand for the payments from the valets digital payments money is not going to be seen in one or two states that you keep transferring money to anyone for 2,000 or 1,000 rupees all that we will be looking at banks would be sending almost daily report of the suspicious transactions which they have all airports in the country would be checked regularly by the dedicated teams of income tax for any kind of movement through the airstrips and where the states have commercial airstrips where helicopters can land we have asked and we have got actually the Bureau of Civil Aviation of security to issue detailed instructions that in any area helicopter or chartered flight will land in any amount as per the directions instructions and guidelines of the BCS almost equal to the commercial airports checking over railways, RPF, GRP both will be simultaneously continuously looking at roads so cash or money whatever money is used political finance in any case is a thing in news these days so this is our effort to add to that thing so that there are much more cleaner elections coming to the third M which is the misinformation this also troubles us a lot during the elections while we are conscious of two facts that the social media helps us taking out our outreach programs as much as we try to bring youth, women, voters to ourselves we use that medium we are also conscious that on social media in democracy there is a full freedom to criticise anybody including criticising us why not, if we are doing wrong criticise us but you cannot not be allowed to create fake news which is not based on facts because it can disturb the public order now they are spreading it so we have given instructions on how to institutionalise it these are some of the new things that you will see in the elections I have told you about the issue about money power and misinformation so this process of elections was in the middle in which there was a possibility of drinking, drinking that is the least of our efforts and we are very conscious of that what we will do under section 69 and 79.3 of the IT Act authorised authorised authority of each state is empowered to ask for take down the social media posts in almost all states authorised officials have been appointed or are being appointed in each district we have done thorough trainings as to how to deal with this kind of a menace so this is on the preventive side but there is also a promotional side all our entire machinery will now react to whatever is coming by facts we will try and join the issue instead of being in the background if somebody is trying to do a fake kind of a narrative which is disturbing the level playing field which is disturbing the public order or which is not based on the facts and which has crossed the line of the criticism we would be also joining them we will also launch very soon on our website something called myth versus reality this is going to be live very soon means this myth is being spread this is its reality we will move ahead and educate you that this is its reality and you should take a look at the social media which means you should not go ahead there is a huge fake market I was thinking about it so I wrote a few lines in the fake market there is a lot of light as soon as the light breaks even if you catch it you will not be able to get it so stop it and try to understand whether it is useful or not now friends the last problem during the elections we have another big problem and that is the political discourse political discourse in this way as we call it it is a plumping level of the political discourse if we have a strong political party you will ask what will be the action after the advisory I will answer you the advisory issue in the last 11-12 elections actually in the last 5 years all the MCC violations we have gathered and given a final advisory before the 24th so this is how we have set our grounds and what we have done in that we have set we are putting political parties on notice means we have asked political parties to give copy of our guidelines to each star campaigner all the big political parties are star campaigners those who will campaign take our guidelines in their personal notice we have given this responsibility to the political parties so now what is happening we have put them on notice and we will presume knowledge of the guidelines these are the two fundamental changes which we have made silently people were asking you to shoot so many notices last time didn't did nothing we left it at that that was a moral sensor but we will go beyond and here we have said we will also look at the past we will also look at the history we might look at a calibrated approach dealing with the MCC violations which may be what type of MCC violations can be I mean statements which which should inspire rather than divide issue based campaign hate speeches, religious speeches and criticism is what is absolutely avoidable people should be refraining from giving unverified misleading advertisements or masquerading as an advertisement as a news we have also issued an advisory issue to the editors in a big newspaper it is printed on its page advertisement let it not pass through advertisement we have issued these advisories now the time is during this election to go beyond advisories take concrete action for which in the advisories there are relevant sections of the acts which are also inbuilt so notice is there, knowledge is there sections are there so please our request is keep campaigning during across the red line this is also important that in this digital world whatever comes out of mouth its record was born for 100 years it keeps going so please avoid creating digital memory of bad words which are coming from your mouth please be civilized during the election this is what is our advice and once there is a fight then the thread of love breaks and when the thread of love breaks then it is very difficult Rahim had said do not break the thread of love if it breaks, then it will not meet then why do we have to meet we have to campaign with love if there is less alcohol friends to streamline the political parties we have taken a step I am showing you the picture that in every field we are ready that how we would control this what we have done around 537 registered unrecognized political parties have been taken out of the political space what they used to do they made a candidate stand in someone's name they took the permission of cars they used someone else they took an entitlement they were cluttering the political space without the genuine persons so that is what it has been done all the financial all the accounts of political parties and all the contribution reports they are all digitized we will come to them we have given them directions it has started coming so whatever political finance is going on in the country along with that these things are going on in the background of what we believe in the transparency in the political financing plummeting level I have already said we have also asked the political parties to be very very respectful to the persons with disabilities in their discourse not to use the abusive words also to not use children at all during the campaigning we will be very strict if anybody does that we are also giving advisories that have internal organizational structures within your party within the parameters and in a right form friends we are appointing 2100 observers all the things I have told you we will do field officers we are appointing 2100 observers and this time what we have given them whether they are providing level playing field or not they will see it specifically inducement and coercion intimidation free election we will report on this the force that is going on in any country its deployment is randomized it is not like it is sent somewhere they will be randomizing the force entire election machinery will be randomized in the presence of the political in the presence of the observers now having done all this what are we what are the what are we expecting how our elections will be so let me show you this what is our effort what is our endeavor as a last slide let me show you there are reduced repulse that is what we are endeavoring zero violence that is what we are endeavoring no inducements work on this fake news is done campaigning, clutter or lack of awareness or participation of people which was 67% participation it increased today with this I would like to in the end appeal to the voters that elections belong to you we have worked hard for two years we will continue but damodar is in your hands we are handing over the baton to you please come and vote political as many as we have to make a choice I would like to appeal to you today you must be hearing that providing level playing field is their tradition no matter what instructions have been given if we will be ruthless in dealing because majority does not if we will do one or two then we will not let our elections be defamed and lastly my appeal to the political parties again I am very committed for ethical political discourse I would like parties to again appeal that please maintain dokoram in campaigning and refrain from abuses and personal attacks politics should be saved from personal attacks then I remember a poem by bhadar enemy fight but this is gunjaish whenever we become friends then we are not ashamed and nowadays to become friends and to become enemies is a bit too much so at least the parties should say that they have become enemies and then nothing can happen with this I would once again thank all the press media who have come here very sincerely this is what I have seen in now three and a half years you are our natural allies you are eyes and ears we have a criticism we say we can reach the voters through you please please reach the voters all the slides all the presentations right now we will meet on our website download use it in your stories if you want something else then tell us now I come to the schedule which you were waiting and I hope I hope I didn't delay it I am not bored you by what I said so now we will be announcing schedule in three phases there are 26 assembly constituencies in the country where it is to be bipolar is due Bihar Gujarat Haryana Jharkhand Maharashtra Tripura Uttar Pradesh West Bengal Telangana Himachal Pradesh Rajasthan Karnat Tamil Nadu in all the states it is due to be bi-elections till date all the vacancies of bi-elections we are completing 26 of them so that there is no vacancy in our country and it will be in the same phase in which parliamentary election is taking place in that particular area when it is taking place I will show you but all the 26 assembly constituencies we will go to the bipole so that during this election itself we can complete this entire process if you have noted now I come to the assembly elections Friends, in four states assembly elections as I told you are ending in June Sikkim on 2nd June with 32 assembly seats Ulissa June 24 24th June with 147 assembly constituencies Arunachal Pradesh on 2nd June with 60 assembly constituencies Andhra Pradesh on 11th June 24th with 175 assembly constituencies these are the simultaneous elections to the parliament they will be held simultaneously they will also be held in the same phase where the parliament elections will be held so now when I tell you the parliamentary elections then I will tell you but in case of Andhra Pradesh the date of issue of gazette notification would be 18th of April 2024 a date of poll would be 13th May 2024 so in Andhra's case the date of poll would be 20th of April and the date of poll would be 24th May after that in Arunachal Pradesh the date of gazette notification would be 20th of March and the date of poll would be 29th of April 20th of March the date of poll sorry 19th of April 20th of March are 20th of March or 19th of April 20th of March notification 19th of April 19th of April the date of poll Ulissa the first notification this will be conducted in phases and first phase would be on 18th of April would be 13th May 5th phase 2nd phase of the assembly of Ulissa 26th of April and 20th May then 6th phase and 7th phase also Ulissa would have the assembly elections 6th phase being on 29th of April and 25th May elections we are sharing all this with you so that it is easy to write and report coming to the general elections to the Lok Sabha which is the biggest Lok Tantrik Tihar biggest 543 parliamentary constituencies of which 84 are reserved for SCs and 47 are reserved for STs so this 543 parliamentary constituencies before telling you the schedule all voters again with their hands Anurad Gujarish that please, please join for the voting come on the day of voting do come on the day of voting schedule of the Lok Sabha poll phase 1 we will do it in 7 phases as was done last time 7 phases phase 1 will start from 20th march notification 5 days from now and last date of withdrawal would be 30th march and date of poll would be 19th of April in this schedule of phase 1 we have to do it twice then there is a festival for Bihar so the date of notification is same but instead of 30th march 2nd of April we have to do it for first phase of Bihar because there is a festival and on 19th of April there will be voting and on 4th of June there will be counting so phase 1 this will look like this we will provide this map this yellow portion will look like this the map of phase 1 in this north east down Tamil Nadu Rajasthan in the center Chhattisgarh Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand on top of that one parliamentary constituency this yellow first phase map is in front of you map. Second phase, second phase of first phase may 21 states jayangi poll may, second phase will notification will start on 28th of March and date of poll will be 26th of April. Similarly here in case of JNK because of the some holiday the date of one day would be different, date of security of nomination would be different, but date of gadget notification or date of poll would be common. Phase one may 21st state polling may jayangi or phase two may us may say or ajay jur jayangi. So this is the map which would be phase two jis me hum north is me kaafi jage chunaw ko complete karthe way Tamil Nadu me complete karthe way, second phase me Rajasthan ko bhi complete karenge. Phase three would be from 12th of April and date of poll will be 7th of May. Is me bhi total 12 states jayangi hum jayangi aur is phase me teen nai raje me chunaw shuru hoga. Iska map ko chishtara se dekhaidega Rajasthanam kabarkar chuke humge, Tamil Nadu kabarkar chuke humge, Kerala kabarkar chuke humge, Gujarat ish me kabarkar leenge, north east poora kabarkar chuke humge aur hum nai raje ko mila ke teen is me nai raje bhi juringe. Fourth phase me 18th apreil ko Gujarat notification hoga aur date of polling would be 13th of May. Date of counting in the entire country would be 4th of June for all by elections, for the assembly elections, for the parliamentary elections. Iska map ko chishtara ke dekhaidega. Isse me tak hum Telangana, Andhra, Odisha would start and by that time, other than that entire south India would be complete, entire western India would be complete, north east would be complete. Aur 5th phase, 26th apreil se shuru hogi aur 20th mai tak chaleegi. 20th mai tak date of poll hogi, beech me nomination scrutiny aur withdrawal ki dates rahenge. Counting of course is 4th of June. It will look like this, which is in front of you and phase 5 me 49 constituencies will be going to the poll. Phase 6th mai 57 constituencies will go to the poll starting from the Gujarat notification on 29th of April and finishing on 25th of May 2024. Iska map ko chishtara ke dekhaidega ki mostly UP, Bihar, Bengal, Ulissa aur saath me kuch north ka purshan chalu rahega. Last phase, 7th phase, notification will be on 7th of May and polling on 1st of June. So last polling would be on 1st of June and counting on 4th and this phase me poora Punjab, Haryana bhi, Shamil rahega, Bengal, Bihar, Ulissa. This is how the map will look. Yellow denotes the 1st phase and accordingly the legions are given. We will share this map also with you. Jaa ki aap isse apne saath rakh sakhe, iske issaap se dekh sakhe. Ye bhi koshish kiye humne aur agar poori phase wise hum picture dey, ye bhi ek achee snapshot hai. Chis me phase 1 me 102 constituencies, phase 2 me 89, phase 3 me 94, phase 4 me 96, 49, 57, 57. So we will start with 102, the largest, slowly come down and finish northeast, move up from the south and finish the western area. To isme weather aur her chis ka dhyan naktewe, kaafi sochne ke baad ye sharyul banaya gaya hai. With this jo single phase, single poll date hai wo by state me hoge, do Rajye 4 bar me jayenge, Karnatka, Rajasthan, Tirpura, Manipur. 3 phase me 2 jayenge, Chhattisgarh and Assam. 4 phase me 3 jayenge, Ulissa, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand. 5 phase me 2 jayenge, Maharashtra and Jammu Kashmir. Jammu Kashmir ki her Paliamentary Constituency ke liye ek phase hoge aur saath phase me 3 jayenge, Uttapadesh, Bihar and West Bengal. With this, friends, I end my address and thank you very much. Thank you, sir, for those detailed remarks. Please hold on, hold on, hold on. So, you raise your hands, hat khada karjije, micers aapke paas aayenge. So, we will start with you in the first row. Where are the micers? Ab aayi hain ko dedige jo. Cc sir will take 4-5 questions at one time, so after that we will take the next person. Sir, mai Mohit Dube hoon news nation se. Sir, mera soval ye hai ki aap saad charno me maddani karwaya hai. Bhodh bade chunoti hai ki duniya ka sbse bada lokh tantra Hindustan hai. Opposition parties jo hain ye aarop laga rahi hain ki saad charno me kya zarot hai aur iski wajah se sattadhari dal ko fayda hota hai. Aur chota saa soval sir ek aur hai ki EBM ko leke lagatara position dharna de raha hai, soval utha raha hai. Aap aamehsha ye kehte rahe hai ki nis pakshta ke saath aap me aap maddan karwate rahe hai EBM ke maddam se, toh unke soval ke baare mein aap kya jab aap denge? Aap yei jo light jacket pane hai centre mein, inko dedige jo, yeh. Just hold on, just hold on. Sir, mera naam Ravindra Singh Sharan hai. I would like to ask ki jo, aap ne bataya ki 35 crore rupee ko seized kya, uske baad karwaya kitte lokh jail gaye, kon kon se political parties involved thi aur jo leaker seized kya gaya usbe kitte cases registered huwe, uski details election commission haware saath kabhi share karta nahi hai, after the election happens. This lady in the front, yeh, idhar middle mein jo hai, inko micers. Ha, inko dedige, yeh, inko dedige, ha. Please switch on your mic. Samir Hussein from BBC News. This is an incredible feat to try and get every person who's eligible to vote to vote. I'm wondering how much money is being spent and in addition, what is the biggest concern in terms of these elections? Okay. The lady in the fourth row over there with that black dress, unko dedige, micers, middle mein. Ha, unko, unko, jo, bhijh mein hai, wo lady jo hai. Ha. I'll give it to her. Yes. Switch on your mic. Hi, I'm Ashlyn. You said in your speech that... Can you just introduce yourself? I'm Ashlyn Matthew from National Herald. Thank you. You had said in your speech that there should be no hate speech, there will be a calibrated approach to MCA code violations. But there have been several complaints against the Prime Minister and Amit Shah, but none of the EC has not taken action against them. But there you have taken action against the opposition leaders. So even if you take a calibrated approach, so won't it be the opposition leaders who get picked up more, who'll get noticed from you more than the ruling party leaders? Yeah, the gentleman in the second row here. Yeah, please. Yeah, the mic is live. Hello. Hello. Sir, Venkatram and from Dinamala, from Tamil Nadu. Sir, every election you are getting new experience regarding the control of money power. How are you going to control the money power? For example, last election in 2019, at Villnur constituency, the candidate Kadiranan from his place, close and close the rupees money has been recovered from him. But what kind of action has been taken against him? And he's going to be the future candidate from the same constituency. Let me first take the answers of these questions of the first round. The first question is, why are elections in the seventh phase? And the opposition parties are angry that the level playing field is disturbed by being in the seventh phase. Okay. Then they'll be moving, like, within three to four days, between the gap in the phases, they will move, they will walk length and breadth of the country. You see, how much pressure there must be. Sometimes elections, machinery, whole process, sometimes exams, sometimes festivals, holy, Ramjaan, Ram Nome, I don't know what festivals are all about. When we sit on the calendar, we fix one date and go to another. We fix the other one, there is some problem. We don't take any action to favor or harm. They don't take action, they don't take any action, if someone has such a illusion, then it is wrong. We can speak on facts. Where, as I said, each state is different in its own, in some states it is one, in some states it is seven. The states where it is seven, there are huge numbers of parliamentary constituencies there are huge number of contestations. That is why it is seven. My friend from the Tamil Nadu has asked what he has talked about, there is a challenge of money power in that particular state and as I mentioned, we are extremely careful of what he has asked. If you learn it from the assembly elections which happened in another southern state recently, we have been able to cure that menace of money power to a very large extent and we would control this. Please don't be worried. Similarly, on the expenditure side take this question from BBC that how much we spend. Each candidate is allowed to spend in the parliamentary constituencies up to 80 lakhs, up to limit and in the assembly up to 38, 90, up to 90 lakhs and in the assembly up to 38. So if you combine amongst the candidate, that is the upper limit which is the expenditure. You have asked about, somebody asked about EBMs. I have told you many times about EBMs, but okay, you have again asked a question. So, and there is a debate going on in the country which needs to be told, that is why I will tell you in detail. By the way, I have told you many times, about 40 times, the constitution of this country courts, high courts and supreme courts, have seen all the challenges on EBMs. What kind of challenges are there? This can be a hack, it can be stolen, there are 19 lakh missing, it is not visible, it gets damaged from the computer, it can change the results, it can be manipulated. Every time, the assembly court has rejected it. What have they said? They have said that there is no virus, no question of introducing virus, they have said that invalid votes cannot be made, they have said that rigging is not possible, they have said that when there is section 61A in the RPF which empowers the use of the EBMs, till they don't finish it, till the question is wrong, they have said that EBMs are full proof devices for counting and allegations of tempering are baseless. I have just said that we have started counting 5 B.B.P.s in exchange for one. Now the result has come that the courts have begun to commit crimes, Delhi High Court has committed a crime of Rs. 10,000 saying mischievous, then Uttam Niyal has committed a crime of Rs. 50,000, recently Uttam Niyal has finished a petition, how many times will you listen? Why do you have to do that again and again? This is something that we have to ask, it cannot be hacked, it cannot be done in any way, and the results are the same, the results come again and again, any EBMs sit on social media, they sit with a Dibba and today a new trend has started, it becomes a little expert, today two experts are also going on social media, they are the degree, they are the expert, they will put you in FAQs, there are 100 plus questions, and political parties have come into existence because of the EVMs, there are many smaller political parties which in the age of the ballot papers might have not come into the existence, it was the fairness and the political parties are no in the heart of their hearts, all of them are mocked three times by the EVMs, they are in front of the candidates, but if you have brought a book to anyone, we have also made a book, look at 40 legal cases, these are 40 cases on EVM, there is FAQ in it and there are flow charts, look at it, it is on our website, it is a little difficult to read, especially the experts, there are a lot of experts here in the country, no one stops anyone, we have also put a chart in it that how many times the EVMs have changed the parties living in power, so I was also thinking about EVM at night, so I wrote something at night with my own hands, then I will tell you, the blame of incomplete laughter, it is not right to put the blame of incomplete laughter on us every time, this is what the EVMs are saying, and later when the result comes, it does not even stand on it, it results in the opposite side of you, what is this brother, how many days, the EVMs are 100% safe, 100% sure, we know now, in the last two years, again, we have been doing this, we have been doing this, we have been doing this, we have been doing this, we have been doing this now, in the last two years, again, we have done a large number of improvements, each EVM number, whatever it goes to, it will be given to the candidate, so there is no problem with it, now, the question about MCC, in which you are trying to ask, we are biased and we take action against someone, we do not take action against someone, this is the question you are basically trying to ask, you are not trying to ask, you are putting a blame on it, which I should answer you, correct, very right, you have a question right to ask, in the last 8, 10, 11 elections, all the blame that we have come to us, read it once to everyone, after reading everyone, see everyone's notices that we have given, wherever any violation is established, even after answering that notice, we have not done anything like this, we have very, as I said, they are kind of a moral sensor which we have in the beginning issued, and whoever is against it, if there is a case, however, high star campaigner, he or she may be, we will not sit back, we will take action. Next. Sir, we will take some questions from that side, middle row, there are gentlemen who are holding it, both his hands are moving. Yes, sir. Just give it to him, there, yeah please. I am Rajasthan Patrika from Nonit Mishra, right now, on the electoral bond, the way it has been damaged, and the Supreme Court has also destroyed the system, and the elections that are about to take place, the system was brought for that, so what will be the next step of IOC, because whoever has a case, the election of the case will increase. Yeah. Sir, Sunil Prabhu, Sunil Prabhu from NDTV, just two, three, two, three points, because you just now made a comment that every EVM has a number, and your own commission had asked for a totalizer. That totalizer has not happened, because if you wanted, in the essence, a free and fair election, then you should not be identified. The others, you said disclose, disclose, disclose. In the interest of the general public, and now we can't get from Mr. Arun Ghoel, because he hasn't only cited personal reasons, in the best interest of the commission, would you be able to disclose what exactly happened, why did Mr. Arun Ghoel, who worked with you, and sadly is not here today in this entire process, if you can come clean about what exactly happened, what were the differences that led to his sudden and abrupt exit. That's Ravi Tripathi, DD News. Go over there. Sir, I am Ravi Tripathi from Zee News. My question is that the number of seats that you have given is 543, instead of 544 on counting. Why is this information? And secondly, the question of the model code of conduct, which our friend, Vipakshi, asks, so last time he gave the name that Modi Code of Conduct, in which you are soft against Modi, and against Rahul Gandhi, you take more action. Why does this happen? Why do you think this is an error? Yeah, gentlemen, next to you. Yeah. Sir, Neeraj Home News at India, sir, first of all, I would like to say that you have become a complete team, both the candidates, and through this big press conference, we are getting to know each other. Our question is that we had an idea that in Jammu and Kashmir, there will be no elections of Vidhan Sabha this time. But why have you done this? Although you have time, the court has given you time. What are the reasons for not making Vidhan Sabha elections in Jammu and Kashmir? Yeah, good. Yes. Sir, my name is Tien Ashok. I used to be a former editor of PTI. I also write a lot of political articles from New York. So I just wanted to know, I was just following the Federal Election Commission of the U.S., which publishes on its website the amount of money raised by presidential candidates, like say, it has just come out only yesterday. Biden has raised about $106 million. Trump has raised $88 million. Nikki Haley has raised about $48 million. Vivek Ramsami has raised about $24 million. Is it possible for the Election Commission of India to publish such kind of details of not the candidates, but the parties, how much have they raised for the 2024 elections? Yeah, thank you. Now, let me answer these questions first. Very critical, very important questions, what are in everybody's discussion during this time. And it is necessary that one clears the stand on that.