India is holding the world's biggest exercise in  democracy to elect 543 members of parliament. The inclusive character and the social diversity of voters have drawn a number of people from developing countries which they say can learn from this mammoth task.

No stone is being unturned to ensure the success of the polls, even if that requires reaching out to a single voter in the midst of a forest. Mahant Bharatdas Darshandas is the lone voter in the midst of western Indian state of Gujarat's Gir forest, home to the Asiatic lion, for whom an entire election team sets up a polling booth every time elections come around -- and will do so again on April 30.

Darshandas, in his early 60s, is the lone occupant of a hamlet called Banej in Gir forest. He has been casting his vote for the past elections, including the 2004 and 2009 parliamentary elections and the 2007 and 2012 Gujarat state assembly elections.

This time too, the Election Commission of India is making all arrangements to ensure that Darshandas, a temple priest, gets to cast his precious single vote. Darshandas lives in Banej Tirthdham, a pilgrimage spot inside the Gir sanctuary and looks after an ancient Shiva temple there.

With the Election Commission of India mandating that no voter should "ordinarily travel more than 2km to reach the polling booth", every election time a team of poll officials travels around 35 km to reach the hamlet of Banej inside the Gir forest, located in Junagadh district.

"We are only following the EC guidelines, which say that no voter should have to travel more than 2km to vote," Junagadh Collector Alok Kumar Pandey told IANS on phone.

"Around four-five polling officials will travel to Banej on April 29 night carrying with them the polling material, including the Electronic Voting Machine. They will be accompanied by forest guards. On April 30, they will set up the polling booth for the single voter," Pandey said.

In an instance of rendering the ongoing electoral exercise inclusive for so far neglected sections of society, 225 widows staying in the religious town of Vrindaban, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, will also cast their vote this time in pursuit of their quest for social recognition.

People across the world are showing interest in this mammoth and varied electoral exercise.

A 30-member delegation from 19 countries, including many from Africa, had already visited polling stations in the nation capital to observe the Indian democracy at work.

The delegation included representatives from Ghana, Sierra Leone, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Malaysia, the Maldives, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and a number of other developing countries.

The sheer scale of the Indian general election has left them marvelling. Members of an international delegation that was in India to witness the Lok Sabha elections were highly impressed by the smooth conduct of polls and said India was a learning centre for other developing countries.

"We visited a model polling station in Delhi and witnessing the magnificent arrangements for voters. It also shows that polls of such magnitude can be conducted in such a smooth manner. This would help the other developing countries too," Abednego Akok, Chief Election Commissioner of South Sudan, told IANS.

Muiugeta, a senior election officer from Ethiopia, praised the awareness campaigns launched by the poll panel and the Systematic Voters Systematic Voters' Education And Electoral Participation(SVEEP) - an initiative to motivate people to come out and vote.

He also appreciated the use of the newly-introduced paper trail in EVMs and wants it to be used in his country too.

Rigzen Lhundrup, a senior election official from Bhutan, said: "The best thing about the poll process in India is the systematic way it is conducted despite India being the second most populated country in the world".

The Election Commission of India and UNDP have a memorandum to jointly promote exchange of visits and sharing of experiences and skills in the field of electoral management with developing countries.

This elections is a 10-phase exercise that has few parallels in the world.

The strength of the electorate has risen by nearly 100 million since 2009. A fifth of this  are 18-19 years old who, if they vote without fail, could be the catalyst for change.

Almost 11 million staff - teachers and government officials drafted for the purpose - will conduct the staggered polls in some 930,000 centres all over the country, armed with electronic voting machines.

Overseeing them will be hundreds of thousands of police and paramilitary personnel. As many as three million were deployed in 2009.

The first phase of voting started April 7 in two states in six of the total 543 constituencies. Seven constituencies spread over five states voted April 9 and 92 constituencies in 14 states the next day.

And from April 17 to May 12, there will be six more rounds of polling, covering an entire landmass from the icy peaks of Kashmir to Tamil Nadu in the deep south, and from the deserts of Rajasthan bordering Pakistan to the northeastern states bordering China and Myanmar.

The millions of votes will get counted May 16 and the verdict will be known, in a few hours, by midday. Voting would be done countrywide through electronic voting machines.