Summary Prime Minister Manmohan Singh already having ruled himself out for another term.
NEW DELHI (AFP) - India, the world s largest democracy, is expected to announce Wednesday national elections that polls suggest will remove the scandal-tainted ruling Congress party from power.
The election commission was expected to announce the schedule for the parliamentary elections at a press conference on Wednesday.
"The probable dates for the commencement of polling are between April 7 and 10," an unnamed official from the election commission told the Press Trust of India news agency Tuesday.
The election commission sent out an invitation to the press conference late on Tuesday, but did not specify the reason for the event.
Political observers have predicted the commission would announce the dates of multi-phase elections for India s decision-making lower parliamentary house by the end of the week.
The voting, which is staggered to ensure voter safety in the country of 1.2 billion people that is racked by a host of insurgencies, must be held by May.
The elections will mark an end of a political era with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, 81, already having ruled himself out for another term.
Opinion polls tip Narendra Modi, the prime ministerial candidate of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, as frontrunner to be country s prime minister.
The Congress, led by 81-year-old Manmohan Singh, has fallen out of favour with voters after a decade in power due to a string of corruption scandals and a sharply slowing economy.
Modi, a fiery orator who is the chief minister of western Gujarat state, is favoured by India s growing middle class for his reputation for running a corruption-free, business-friendly government.
But Modi is also seen as a divisive figure due to his stewardship of the state during deadly anti-Muslim riots in 2002. He has denied any responsibility for the bloodshed.
