Over 96 crore voters eligible to take part in Lok Sabha polls: Chief Election Commissioner

New Delhi, Mar 16: A total of 96.8 crore voters will be eligible to cast their vote in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar said on Saturday.

Addressing a press conference to announce Lok Sabha polls dates and assembly polls to four states, he said there will be 10.5 lakh polling stations and 1.5 crore polling officials and security staff will be deployed to conduct the elections in the world's largest democracy.

He said that approximately 49.7 crore voters are male and 47.1 crore voters are female. "We have 1.8 crore first-time voters and 19.47 crore voters between the age group of 20-29 years," he said, adding that 88.4 lakh voters are of Persons with Disabilities category, 2.18 lakhs are centenarians and 48,000 are transgenders. (KNS)