Electronic voting is the standard means of conducting elections using Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in India. The system was developed and tested by the state-owned Electronics Corporation of India and Bharat Electronics in the 1990s. They were introduced in Indian elections between 1998 and 2001, in a phased manner. Prior to the introduction of electronic voting, India used paper ballots and manual counting. The paper ballots method was widely criticised because of fraudulent voting and booth capturing, where party loyalists captured booths and stuffed them with pre-filled fake ballots. The printed paper ballots were also more expensive, requiring substantial post-voting resources to count hundreds of millions of individual ballots. Embedded EVM features such as "electronically limiting the rate of casting votes to five per minute", a security "lock-close" feature, an electronic database of "voting signatures and thumb impressions" to confirm the identity of the voter, conducting elections in phases over several weeks while deploying extensive security personnel at each booth have helped reduce electoral fraud and abuse, eliminate booth capturing and create more competitive and fairer elections. Indian EVMs are stand-alone machines built with Write once read many memory. The EVMs are produced with secure manufacturing practices, and by design, are self-contained, battery-powered and lack any networking capability. They do not have any wireless or wired internet components and interface. The M3 version of the EVMs includes the VVPAT system.
India has a parliamentary system as defined by its constitution, with power distributed between the central government and the states. India's democracy is the largest democracy in the world.
The Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly election followed as a result the expiration of the five-year term of the previous legislature elected in Uttar Pradesh, India. The election to the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly was held in seven phases from 8 February through 3 March 2012. Uttar Pradesh has the world's largest population for a sub-national democracy. The incumbent chief minister Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party, which previously won an absolute majority of seats, was defeated by Mulayam Singh Yadav's Samajwadi Party, which gained an absolute majority in the election. Mulayam's son and Samajwadi party president Akhilesh Yadav was nominated as chief minister by the party.
The Delhi Legislative Assembly election was held on 4 December 2013, with the result announced on 8 December resulting in formation of the Fifth Legislative Assembly of Delhi.
Legislative Assembly elections were held in the Indian state of Rajasthan on 1 December 2013. Results were announced on 8 December. The incumbent ruling party Indian National Congress, led by the Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, lost the elections to Vasundhara Raje-led BJP, who was being touted as the next incumbent.
A Legislative Assembly election was held on 25 November 2013 in Madhya Pradesh, India, with the result announced on 8 December. Along with four other state assembly elections, these were the first elections in which the Election Commission of India (ECI) implemented a "None of the above" (NOTA) voting option, allowing the electorate to register a neutral vote but not to outright reject candidates. In a first, the Election Commission of India also appointed Central Awareness Observers, whose main task was to oversee voter awareness and facilitation.
The 2014 Indian general election polls in Uttar Pradesh for 80 Lok Sabha seats was held in six phases on 10, 17, 24, 30 April and 7, 12 May 2014. The total voter strength of Uttar Pradesh was 134,351,297.
The election for the Sixteenth Legislative Assembly of Uttar Pradesh, a multi party contest, the Samajwadi party beating most of the exit polls which were pointing the hung assembly, secured a comfortable majority of 224 in a house of 403 outperforming the ruling BSP and other national parties, the INC and the BJP. The BSP strength in the assembly was greatly reduced to 80 seats, the BJP with 47 seats followed by the Congress with 28 seats. Mayawati, the incumbent Chief Minister tendered her resignation on 6 March 2012 marking the distinction of being the first to complete full five years in office.
The Legislative Assembly election was held over five phases in Bihar through October–November 2015 before the end of the tenure of the prior Legislative Assembly of Bihar on 29 November 2015.
The 2017 Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly election was the 4th Vidhan Sabha election of the state of Uttarakhand in India. Elections were held on 15 February 2017 in a single phase for the 69 seats of the Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly. Voting in the Karnaprayag constituency was postponed until 9 March 2017 due to the death of BSP candidate Kuldeep Kanwasi in a road accident. In the previous election in 2012, none of the parties won a majority but the Indian National Congress formed the government with the help of PDF with the leadership of Vijay Bahuguna.
A Legislative Assembly election was held in the Indian state of Punjab on 4 February 2017 to elect the 117 members of the Fifteenth Punjab Legislative Assembly. The counting of votes was done on 11 March 2017. The ruling pre-election coalition was the alliance comprising the political parties Shiromani Akali Dal and Bharatiya Janata Party and led by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. The voter turnout for the Punjab Assembly election was 77.2% The Indian National Congress led by former Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh defeated the ruling alliance and the newcomer Aam Aadmi Party.
The Goa Legislative Assembly election, 2017 was held on February 4, 2017 to elect the 40 members of the Seventh Goa Legislative Assembly, as the term of Sixth Legislative Assembly ended on March 18, 2017. VVPAT-fitted EVMs was used in entire Goa state in the 2017 elections, which was the first time that an entire state in India saw the implementation of VVPAT.
The 14th Gujarat Legislative Assembly election, 2017 was held on 9 December 2017 and 14 December 2017 in the Indian state of Gujarat to elect the Members of Legislative Assembly (MLA). The votes were counted on 18 December. All 182 members of the 14th Gujarat Legislative Assembly were elected with the leader of the largest party or coalition expected to become the next chief minister.
The Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly election, 2017 was held on 9 November 2017 to elect all 68 members of the Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly.
A Legislative Assembly election was held in Manipur on 4 March and 8 March 2017 to elect the 60 members of the Manipur Legislative Assembly, as the term of the previous Assembly was to end on 18 March 2017. Voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) machines were used along with Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in four assembly constituencies in Manipur.
The 2018 Karnataka Legislative Assembly election was held on 12 May 2018 in 222 constituencies to the Karnataka Legislative Assembly. The election was postponed in Jayanagar and Rajarajeshwari Nagar, following the death of the MLA B. N. Vijaya Kumar and a voter fraud scandal respectively till 28 May. The election saw a voter turnout of 72.13 per cent, the highest in Karnataka since several decades. The counting of votes took place on 15 May 2018.
The 2019 Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly elections were held in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh on 11 April 2019 for constituting the fifteenth legislative assembly in the state. They were held alongside the 2019 Indian general election.
The Mahagathbandhan, or MGB, or simply the Gathbandhan (Alliance), was an anti-Congress, anti-BJP, Indian political alliance formed in the run-up to the 2019 general election under the leadership of two former Chief Ministers of Uttar Pradesh, Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party and Mayawati of the Bahujan Samaj Party, along with Ajit Singh's Rashtriya Lok Dal.
Legislative Assembly elections were held in Punjab on 20 February 2022 to elect the 117 members of the 16th Assembly of the Punjab Legislative Assembly. The votes were counted and the results were declared on 10 March 2022.
Legislative Assembly elections were held in Uttar Pradesh from 10 February to 7 March 2022 in seven phases to elect all 403 members for the 18th Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly. The votes were counted and the results were declared on 10 March 2022.
1.84%) [1] 
