India election 2024: Live updates as vote counting gets underway

Vote counting is underway in India’s 2024 Lok Sabha election. Results in the world’s largest election could also be among its most consequential; voters are choosing 543 members for the lower house of Parliament for a five-year term.

Here’s what to know:

• When will results be announced?: The vote counting will be updated throughout the day, with the first results expected in the afternoon local time.
• Who is running?: The election pits Prime Minister Narendra Modi, an avowed Hindu nationalist, against a broad alliance of opposition parties that are struggling to play catch up.
• What’s at stake?: For decades, India has clung doggedly to its democratic convictions, largely due to free elections, an independent judiciary, a thriving media, strong opposition and peaceful transition of power. Some of these credentials have eroded under Modi’s 10-year rule, with the polls seen as a test for the country’s democratic values.

Here’s what to know:

• When will results be announced?: The vote counting will be updated throughout the day, with the first results expected in the afternoon local time.
• Who is running?: The election pits Prime Minister Narendra Modi, an avowed Hindu nationalist, against a broad alliance of opposition parties that are struggling to play catch up.
• What’s at stake?: For decades, India has clung doggedly to its democratic convictions, largely due to free elections, an independent judiciary, a thriving media, strong opposition and peaceful transition of power. Some of these credentials have eroded under Modi’s 10-year rule, with the polls seen as a test for the country’s democratic values.

Indian women are a key voting bloc with more of them voting in recent elections than ever before.

Most poll experts expect women