BJP vs INDIA: Polling begins across 21 states & UTs under first phase of LS Election
Voting started on Friday in 102 parliamentary constituencies across 21 states and union territories to elect members to the 18th Lok Sabha whose results will be out after 47 days and seven phases of polling.
New Delhi: Voting started on Friday in 102 parliamentary constituencies across 21 states and union territories to elect members to the 18th Lok Sabha whose results will be out after 47 days and seven phases of polling.
A total of 16.63 crore voters are eligible to exercise their rights in the first phase between 7 am and 5 pm in most of the booths. India has in all 97 crore voters.
The Bharatiya Janata Party led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seeking a rare third term as the opposition INDI Alliance faces a herculean battle to dislodge the BJP-headed NDA, which is governing the county since 2014.
A total of 1,625 candidates are in fray as polling begins in 1.87 lakh polling stations.
Voting is being held in Naxal-infested Bastar that recently saw over 40 maoists being eliminated in major actions as well as in the ethnic violence-hit Manipur in the first phase which also includes 18 seats reserved for Scheduled Castes and 11 for Scheduled tribes.
Of the 21 states and union territories, polls will be over in 10 states in a single phase.
Polling will be held for all seats of Tamil Nadu (39), Mizoram (1), Nagaland (1), Puducherry (1), Sikkim (1), Lakshadweep (1) Uttarakhand (5), Arunachal Pradesh (2), Meghalaya (Shillong and Tura), and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (1).
There are two seats in Manipur (Inner and Outer) and one seat each in Tripura, Jammu and Kashmir (Udhampur) and Chhattisgarh (Bastar) also going to the hustings during the day, besides, 12 seats in Rajasthan, eight in Uttar Pradesh, six in Madhya Pradesh, five seats each in Assam and Maharashtra, four in Bihar, and three in West Bengal.
Simultaneously, assembly elections are also being held in Arunachal Pradesh (60 seats) and Sikkim (32 seats).
Arunachal Pradesh West and East Lok Sabha seats face elections alongside Assam’s five out of 14 – Kaziranga, Sonitpur, Lakhimpur, Dibrugarh, Jorhat.
Out of Bihar’s 40 seats, it is poll day in only four — Jamui. Nawada, Gaya (SC) and Aurangabad.
The highly sensitive seat of Bastar, of the 11 Chhattisgarh parliamentary constituencies, will witness voting under heavy security as 11 contestants fight it out with polling timing staggered between 7 am to 3 am and few going upto 5 pm.
