Context: Chief Election Commissioner released General Elections 2019 – An Atlas. The officers of the Commission for compiling this innovative document and hoped that this would inspire academicians and researchers to further explore the vast landscape of the Indian elections.
Background

• Since the first General Elections in 1951-52, the Commission has been publishing compilation of electoral data in the form of narrative and statistical books.
• 17th General Elections conducted in 2019 were the largest democratic exercise in human history.
• Based on all data’s available the  map and tables are published.Atlas on General Elections 2019 UPSC
• Atlas encompasses all the data and statistical figures of this monumental event. 
• The Atlas also shares interesting facts, anecdotes and legal provisions related to the Indian elections.

Aim is to better visualize and represent the electoral data.

• Atlas serves as an informative and illustrative document that brings to light of Indian electoral process and empowers readers to analyse trends and changes.

Data Collection

• In Indian elections electoral data is primarily collected during the preparation of Electoral Roll by the Electoral Registration Officers and also in the process of conduct of elections by the Returning Officers.
• This data is then collated by these statutory authorities.
• After the culmination of the electoral process the Election Commission of India collects this electoral data and prepares various reports for compilation, record and dissemination purposes.
• Commission released statistical reports based on the electoral data made available by the Returning Officers of 543 Parliamentary Constituencies.

Feature in the Atlas
Atlas brings out salient features such as

• Data of the 23 States and Uts where women voting percentage was more than the male voting percentage;
• Information about the largest & smallest parliamentary constituency in terms of electors, candidates and performance of political parties amongst other parameters.
• Atlas depicts the electors data in different categories and through various comparison charts like Elector Gender Ratio and electors in different age categories.
• Atlas also compares the average number of electors per polling station in different states during 2014 & 2019 General Elections.
• Atlas compares the number of contesting candidates in the General Elections since 1951.

Key Facts about 2019 General Election

• The 2019 General Elections witnessed the lowest gender gap in the history of Indian elections.
• The Elector Gender Ratio which has shown a positive trend since 1971 was 926 in 2019 General Elections.
• The Election Commission of India set up over 10 lakh polling stations in General Elections 2019 with the lowest number of electors per polling station (365) in Arunachal Pradesh.
• 2019 General Elections, there were 8054 qualified contesting candidates after rejection of nominations & withdrawals from a total of 11692 nominations filed across the country.
• It witnessed the participation of 61.468 crore voters at 10.378 lakh polling stations spread over 32 lakh square kilometer territory of India.

How elections conducted In India ?
Election at various levels

• Lok Sabha elections the country is divided into several constituencies and each constituency elects one winner.
• Voters from across 29 states and  7 territories will elect 543 members to the lower house of parliament. 
• Voting in India is conducted by electronic voting machines or EVM, which was first introduced in 1982 finally  introduced VVPAT.
• It can be conducted withinone single-phase or divided into different phases.
• Assembly elections are also conducted at the state level to elect representatives for the Legislative Assembly for the sates.
• Legislative Assembly or the Vidhan Sabha conducts the election in the same method as the Lok Sabha elections.
• Legislative Council (Vidhan Parishad) elections are conducted in accordance with the election process of Rajya Sabha

Article 324 of the Indian Constitution

• Grants the Election commission the power of supervision, direction, and control of elections of Rajya Sabha, Lok Sabha, and the State legislature.
• It draws out the schedule for a free and fair election.
• The Election Commission comprises the Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners.
• The power of elections to the Corporations, Municipalities, Zila Parishads, Panchayat Samities,Gram Panchayat and other local bodies at the local level are conducted by respective State Election Commissions.

Universal Adult Franchise

• It is the foundation of Indian democracy.
• Citizens of India must be 18 years of age or above to cast their vote in the elections conducted in all the three levels of the Government, the centre, state, and the local levels.

Model Code of Conduct

• It provides for a set of guidelines issued by the Election Commission of India.
• Model Code of Conduct guidelines on General Conduct
• Model Code of Conduct guidelines on Meetings
• Model Code of Conduct guidelines on Processions
• It mainly focus with respect to speeches, polling day, polling booths, portfolios, election manifestos, processions and general conduct.
• ECI in 2019 had decided to keep social media posts by the political parties and leaders under its vigil for detecting any MCC violation.

Challenges

• Allegations of voter fraud in some parts of the country.
• Vote-buying during the campaign.
• Money Power in elections

About Election commission of India

• The constitution under article 324 provides for an Election Commission for the superintendence, direction and control of the preparation of the electoral rolls for the conduct of elections to parliament, state legislatures and to the offices of president and vice president.

Composition Election commission of India

• The constitution provides for the following provisions in relation to the composition of the election commission:
• The election commission shall consist of the Chief Election Commissioner and a such number of other election commissioners, if any, as the president may from time to time fix.
• The appointment of the chief election commissioner and other election commissioners shall be made by the president.
• When any other election commissioner is so appointed the chief election commissioner shall act as the chairman of the election commission.
• The president may also appoint after consultation with the election commission such regional commissioners as he may consider necessary to assist the election commission.
• The conditions of service and tenure of office of the election commissioners and the regional commissioners shall be such as the President may by rule determine.

CEC vs ECs

• Though the Chief Election Commissioner is the chairman of the election commission, however, his powers are equal to the other election commissioners. All the matters in the commission are decided by the majority amongst its members. The Chief Election Commissioner and the two other election commissioners receive equal salary, allowances and other benefits.

Tenure

• The Chief Election Commissioner and other election commissioners hold office for 6 years or till they attain the age of 65 years, whichever is earlier. They can resign at any time by addressing their resignation to the president.

Removal

• They can resign anytime or can also be removed before the expiry of their term.
• The Chief Election Commissioner can be removed from his office in the same manner and on same grounds as a judge of the Supreme Court.