What to know about India’s election, the world’s biggest democratic event

NEW DELHI — The end has come for India’s 47-day marathon election for the lower house of Parliament, the Lok Sabha, in which almost a billion voters, from the Himalayas in the north to far flung islands in the Indian Ocean, have taken part.

As election officials trekked for miles, by foot, hoof and helicopter, to collect the votes of the most remote citizens, India’s top diplomat, S Jaishankar, called it the “largest electoral logistics exercise that this planet has ever witnessed.”