People walk downhill towards their home after casting their votes at a polling station during the first phase of the Lok Sabha, or lower house, of the Indian parliamentary elections in a hilly village in Banihal, an area in the Ramban district of Udhampur parliamentary constituency. The 2024 Lok Sabha (lower house of Parliament) parliamentary elections mark the first major election in Jammu and Kashmir since New Delhi revoked Article 370, the region's special semi-autonomous status, in 2019. Voting in India, the world's largest democracy, is scheduled to be conducted in seven phases between April 19 and June 1, 2024. With over 970 million voters, comprising more than 10% of the world's population, the electorate will choose 543 members for the lower house of Parliament for a term of five years. (Photo by Faisal Bashir / SOPA Images/Sipa USA)