NEW DELHI, Jan 15: India is to hold general elections in April, an election commission official said on Thursday.

The world’s largest democracy must go to the polls before May, the end of the five-year mandate of the Congress party-led government, and the official confirmed the vote would be “in the first week or second week of April”.

“These dates are decided by the commission in consideration with the government,” said the official, who asked not to be named.

Rahul Gandhi, the 38-year-old son of slain former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi, is expected to take centre stage during the election campaign.

The prime ministerial candidate of the main opposition and Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is Lal Krishna Advani, who is 81.—AFP