Interesting Facts About Indian Elections

" PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee's mother and father share the same name- Krishna, His father's name is Krishna Bihari Vajpayee and mother's name is Krishna Devi!"

"Designed by Electronics Corporation of India Ltd. and Bharat Electronics Ltd, Electronic voting machines (EVMs) were first used in Kerala. The highest number of candidates that an electronic voting machine can support is 64. If the number exceeds this, then manual ballot is used!""

"The word candidate comes from the Latin `candidatus` meaning `one clad in white` and most, till this day carry on with this white!"

" `Ballot` and `bullet` are both derived from words for `balls`. The Greeks dropped a white ball when they favoured a candidate, and a black when they were against. The term `blackballed` comes from this too!"

" Ever heard of 1033 candidates for a single seat? Believe it or not, it did happened for the Modaurichi assembly constituency in Tamil Nadu in 1996. The ballot paper was in the form of a booklet!"

" From its days of glory in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress in 1988 won exactly zero seats!""

" Mayawati`s BSP and George W Bush`s republican party both have the same electoral symbol-the elephant!"

" A B Vajpayee is the only parliamentarian to be elected from four different states- UP, Gujarat, MP and Delhi!"

" The lowest voter turnout in a polling station is three! It happened in Bomdila district in Arunachal Pradesh!"

" Elections in 1950s were carried out using different ballot boxes for each candidate, rather than voting on ballot paper! Different coloured boxes represented different parties!"

" The Election Commission of India has seen many firsts, but here`s another first -- it now has two election commissioners who are fluent in Gujarati. The latest to join, N Gopalaswamy, is an IAS officer from the Gujarat cadre and, therefore, speaks Gujarati. That 63-year-old Chief Election Commissioner Taruvai Subbayya Krishna Murthy also speaks fluent Gujarati!"

" Lakshadweep has the largest presence of Muslims of all the states/UTs including Jammu and Kashmir!"

" Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh is the only constituency in the Hindi belt which has always returned Congrss during the general elections!"

" Atal Bihari Vajpayee is the only politician who has won from six different constituencies: Balrampur - 1957, 1967, Gwalior - 1971, New Delhi - 1977, 1980, Vidisha- 1991, Gandhinagar - 1996, Lucknow - 1991, 1996, 1998 !"

" BJP won Lok Sabha seats for the first time in the states of Tamil Nadu and West Bengal in 1998!"

" Rajnandgaon in Madhya Pradesh has a unique feature- father, mother and son have represented this constituency at different times!"

" The highest voting percentage in any general elections has been 62.2 per cent in 1957, the lowest was in 1967 when only 33 per cent cast their vote. In the last general election in 1999, 59.99 per cent had cast their votes!"

" As the country goes to polls, the Women's Reservation Bill has been put on the backburner yet again. While only 4.4 per cent of the first Lok Sabha were women, the percentage only doubled to 9.02 per cent by the thirteenth Lok Sabha!"

" Country's 5 biggest and 5 smallest constituencies according to area: Biggest constituencies: Barmer (Rajasthan) : 71601.24 sq-km Ladakh (J&K) : 173266.37 sq-km Arunachal (East) (AP): 39749.64 sq-km Kuchh (Gujarat) : 41644.55 sq-km Arunachal(West) AP: 40572.29 sq-km Smallest constituencies: Mumbai South: 13.73 sq-km Mumbai South-central: 18.31 sq-km Delhi sadar: 28.09 sq-km Chandni chowk (Delhi): 10.59 sq-km Kolkata north west 13.23 sq-km

" Election Commission survey says 95% voters prefer EVMs!"

" 150 million votes to be targeted by the BJP`s campaign via-e-mail and SMS!"

" Number of EVMs required this election: 10.25 lakhs!"