Over 97 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in the Lok Sabha elections, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said on Saturday and urged everyone to “get inked.”

 Addressing a press conference to announce the Lok Sabha elections, Kumar said the poll authority is preparing to set up 10.5 lakh polling stations across the country.

 “We are fully prepared and I request the voters to get inked,” the Chief Election Commissioner said flanked by two new Election Commissioners Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu.

 “This is a historic opportunity for all of us,” he said.

 He said the poll panel promises to deliver the national election in a manner that can add to India’s shine on the world stage.

 “After assessment in all states, we are confident of ensuring a memorable, independent and impartial polls,” Kumar said.

“We have 97 crore registered voters, over 10.5 lakh polling stations manned by 1.5 crore personnel, and 55 lakh EVMs,” he said.

Kumar said the Commission has conducted 17 Lok Sabha elections, 16 Presidential elections and more than 400 assembly elections.

The CEC said there are 97.8 crore eligible voters of which 49.72 crore were male voters and 47.1 crore were female voters.

 He said there are 1.82 crore first-time voters

The last 11 state elections were peaceful and violence-free with near-zero re-polls, he said, adding that this will further be improved going forward.

 In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, polling was held in seven phases.

 There were a total of 91.2 crore eligible voters with about 43.8 crore female voters and nearly 47.3 crore male voters.

A total of about 61.5 crore votes were cast and the voter turnout was 67.4 per cent.

 In the 2019 poll results, the BJP won 303 seats, Congress 52, Trinamool Congress 22, BSP 10, NCP 5, CPI-M 3 and CPI 2.