A day before the results of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections are announced, Chief Election Commissioner of India, Rajiv Kumar, commended the unsung heroes who played a vital role in the elections, highlighting India’s achievement of a world record with 642 million voters.
“We have set a world record with 642 million voters. This number is 1.5 times the voters of all G7 countries combined and 2.5 times those of the 27 EU countries,” said CEC Kumar. “Voters made history in 2024, with over 31 crore women casting their votes and over 64 crore votes recorded in these elections,” he added.
The Election Commission of India gave a standing ovation to all participants in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The commissioner detailed the extensive efforts that made the elections successful, mentioning the deployment of 1.5 crore polling and security personnel, 68,763 monitoring teams, 135 special trains, 1,692 air sorties, and the use of 4 lakh vehicles.
“Over 68,000 monitoring teams and 1.5 crore polling and security personnel participated in the world’s largest electoral exercise,” stated CEC Rajiv Kumar. “Nearly four lakh vehicles, 135 special trains, and 1,692 air sorties were utilized to conduct the 2024 Lok Sabha elections,” he added.
He mentioned that home voting was arranged for voters over 85 years old and emphasized vigilance in preventing derogatory remarks about women’s dignity by any political figures.
J&K recorded its highest voter turnout in the past four decades: CEC
Addressing social media memes referring to election commissioners as ‘Laapata Gentlemen,’ CEC Rajiv Kumar clarified, “We were always present, never missing.” He also highlighted that Jammu & Kashmir recorded the highest voter turnout in four decades.
“Thanks to the diligent work of election personnel, we ensured fewer repolls – only 39 in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections compared to 540 in 2019, with 25 of the 39 repolls occurring in just two states,” the CEC noted.
He discussed the strategies to identify, confront, and manage Muscle, Money, Misinformation, and MCC Violations.
“This General Election was notably free of violence, a result of two years of preparation,” stated CEC Rajiv Kumar. He added that no AI-generated synthetic content or deepfakes were detected and that the voter emerged as the true victor.
“The Election Commission made a record seizure of nearly Rs 10,000 crores during this election, almost three times the amount seized in 2019…Local teams were empowered to carry out their duties,” said CEC Rajiv Kumar.
