India began the first phase of the largest election ever held on Monday as an electorate that is more than 10 times the size of the total population of the UK goes to the polls.
The world's largest democracy's general election is expected to be the biggest held in history, with 814 million voters eligible to take part across nine polling days, the last of which is on May 12.
The result is expected to end 10 years of power for the ruling Congress party, led by members of India's Gandhi dynasty, and elect the Hindu nationalist opposition to power.
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Below are photos that show the sheer scale of an election that will take around 5 million people to run and another 5 million to police.