Political parties are working hard to woo around 18 million first-time voters in India’s parliamentary polls to be held between April 19 and June 1, with a total of 970 million people set to cast their ballot in the world’s largest democracy.

The number of first-time voters between 18 and 19 years old has risen by 20 per cent compared with the last time India elected its parliamentarians in 2019, when 900 million people were registered to vote. Around 8.5 million of the first-timers this time are women.