The Election Commission of India announced seven phases for General Elections 2024. In which phase were elections held in Uttarakhand?
- (a)First
- (b)Second
- (c)Fourth
- (d)Seventh
Correct — A, First.
The Election Commission announced the schedule on 16 March 2024 and spread polling from 19 April to 1 June. Uttarakhand's Lok Sabha seats were placed in the First phase, which polled on 19 April 2024.
All five of Uttarakhand's constituencies were placed in that same phase and polled on 19 April 2024. Fix the date rather than the ordinal: Uttarakhand polled on 19 April 2024, the opening day of the 2024 general elections.
- (b)Second — The second phase polled on 26 April 2024. That is the date on which Kerala's 20 Lok Sabha seats went to the polls, the State being covered in this one phase.
Uttarakhand had already finished a week earlier, on 19 April.
- (c)Fourth — The fourth phase polled on 13 May 2024. That is the date for Andhra Pradesh's 25 Lok Sabha seats, taken alongside the State assembly election held simultaneously with them.
Placing Uttarakhand here pushes its polling almost a month past the day it actually voted.
- (d)Seventh — The seventh and last phase polled on 1 June 2024. That is the date for Himachal Pradesh's four Lok Sabha seats.
Two small Himalayan States sat at opposite ends of the same calendar — Himachal Pradesh last, Uttarakhand first — so terrain and seat count do not by themselves fix the phase.
A general election to the Lok Sabha is not one polling day. The Election Commission of India fixes a schedule that splits the country into phases, so that central forces, polling staff and observers can be moved from one set of constituencies to the next.
Each State or Union Territory is assigned to one phase or spread over several, depending on its size and the assessment of what the polling machinery can handle in a day. Counting for the whole election is then held on a single day.
The item pairs a national event with a State-level detail: the 2024 general elections have to be recalled through Uttarakhand's place in the schedule rather than in outline.
The Commission's control of the calendar comes from Article 324, which vests the superintendence, direction and control of parliamentary elections in it. Knowing that the Commission — not the government — announces the dates is the constitutional half; the 2024 schedule is the factual half.
- The Election Commission of India announced the 2024 Lok Sabha schedule on 16 March 2024, dividing polling into seven phases.
- The first phase polled on 19 April 2024 and the seventh and final phase on 1 June 2024.
- Uttarakhand's five Lok Sabha seats polled together on 19 April 2024, in the first phase.
- Uttarakhand's five constituencies are Tehri Garhwal, Garhwal, Almora (SC), Nainital–Udhamsingh Nagar and Haridwar.
- Kerala's 20 Lok Sabha seats polled on 26 April 2024, in the second phase.
- Andhra Pradesh's 25 Lok Sabha seats polled on 13 May 2024, in the fourth phase, with its assembly election held simultaneously.
- Himachal Pradesh's four Lok Sabha seats polled on 1 June 2024, in the seventh phase.
- Counting for the 2024 general elections was held on 4 June 2024.
- Article 324 vests the superintendence, direction and control of elections to Parliament in the Election Commission of India.
Each option's phase, with a State whose Lok Sabha seats polled in it. Votes from the seven phases were counted together on 4 June 2024.
- Holding the ordinal without the date. 'First phase' is only recoverable if 19 April 2024 is stored with it.
- Reading 16 March 2024, the day the schedule was announced, as a polling date.
- Assuming a small hill State must be scheduled late for weather or security reasons — Himachal Pradesh polled on 1 June while Uttarakhand polled on 19 April.
- Borrowing the phase of a State that voted for its assembly at the same time: Andhra Pradesh's 13 May polling belongs to the fourth phase, not to Uttarakhand.
- Sliding from the polling date to the result date. Uttarakhand's votes were cast on 19 April but counted on 4 June 2024.
The idea can be pinned as straight recall — name the phase for a given State, or name the date for a given phase.
It can also be inverted: a date is supplied and the State has to be identified, or a set of States is offered and the one that finished in a single phase has to be picked.
A statement-based version drops the calendar and tests the authority instead — whether the schedule is announced by the Commission or by a ministry.
UPSC_2017_GS1_Q902017Same institution, opposite demand. Its statement 2 hands the election schedule to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, and the key ('3 only') rejects that — the Commission fixes the dates. The UKPSC item takes that power for granted and asks for one specific slot inside the 2024 calendar.
UPSC_2003_GS1_Q112003Also turns on the Commission's control of election timing: its deferral of the 2002 Gujarat Assembly elections reached the Supreme Court through a presidential reference under Article 143. That question asks for the constitutional route by which a scheduling decision was tested; this one asks where a State was placed in a schedule already announced.
HPSC_2021_MAINS_GSI_Q562021Carries the same proposition — that the Election Commission decides the schedule for general elections and bye-elections — but as a statement to be judged rather than a date to be recalled. It stops at the power; the UKPSC item needs the calendar of a particular election.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Polling for the Lok Sabha seats of Uttarakhand in the 2024 general elections was held on which date?
- (a)19 April 2024
- (b)26 April 2024
- (c)13 May 2024
- (d)1 June 2024
Answera — Uttarakhand's five seats polled on 19 April 2024, the first of the seven phases announced on 16 March 2024.26 April was the second phase, the day Kerala's 20 seats polled. 13 May was the fourth phase, when Andhra Pradesh voted for its Lok Sabha and assembly seats together. 1 June was the seventh and final phase, when Himachal Pradesh polled.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Election Commission of India announced the schedule for the 2024 Lok Sabha general elections on 16 March 2024. On which date were the votes counted?
- (a)19 April 2024
- (b)26 April 2024
- (c)4 June 2024
- (d)1 June 2024
Answerc — counting for the 2024 general elections was held on 4 June 2024, after polling had closed everywhere.19 April was the first polling day and 26 April the second. 1 June was the last polling day, the seventh phase, three days before the count.
- practice — not a real PYQ
In the 2024 general elections, the Lok Sabha seats of which one of the following States polled in the second phase, on 26 April 2024?
- (a)Uttarakhand
- (b)Kerala
- (c)Himachal Pradesh
- (d)Andhra Pradesh
Answerb — Kerala's 20 Lok Sabha seats polled on 26 April 2024, in the second phase.Uttarakhand polled on 19 April in the first phase. Andhra Pradesh polled on 13 May in the fourth phase, along with its assembly election. Himachal Pradesh polled on 1 June in the seventh and final phase.