Lok Sabha Elections 2024 First Phase: 5 Talking Points
By : Indraneel
Update: 2024-04-18 15:34 GMT
Hyderabad: Voting for the seven-phased 18th Lok Sabha election begins on Friday. Campaigning ended on Wednesday (April 17) evening for the 102 LS seats in the first phase. Nominations for this phase were completed on March 27. Vote counting will be done on June 4 after voting in all phases are over.
Here are the top five talking points on the first phase of voting:
1. VITAL STATISTICS
The first phase is the largest of the seven phases of voting. Over 1,600 candidates are in the fray in this phase, which will cover 102 parliamentary constituencies across 21 states and Union territories. This phase will cover 16.63 crore voters, including 8.23 crore women, 8.4 crore men, and 11,371 from the third gender. There are 35.67 lakh first time voters, besides 3.51 crore voters in the age group of 20 to 29 years.
2. BIG NAMES
The first phase will see eight Union ministers, two former chief ministers and an ex-governor test their electoral fortunes. The Union ministers include Nitin Gadkari (Nagpur, Maharashtra), Kiren Rijiju (Arunachal Pradesh-West), Arjun Ram Meghwal (Bikaner, Rajasthan), Sarbanada Sonowal (Dibrugarh, Assam), Sanjeev Baliyan (Muzaffarnagar, western UP), Jitendra Singh (Udhampur, Jammu and Kashmir) and Bhupendra Yadav (Alwar, Rajasthan).
Former Tripura chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb will slug it out against state Congress president Ashish Kumar Saha in the West Tripura seat. Tamilisai Soundararajan, the former Governor of Telangana and Lt Governor of Puducherry is contesting from the Chennai South constituency. Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath's son, Nakul is seeking reelection from the Chhindwara seat (Madhya Pradesh). Another key figure in the first phase is Tamil Nadu BJP chief K. Annamalai, vying for the Coimbatore seat in Tamil Nadu.
3. ARRANGEMENTS
Over 18 lakh polling personnel have been deployed across 1.87 lakh polling booths. They were sent to their respective polling stations via 41 helicopters, 84 special trains and nearly one lakh vehicles.
4. FAIRNESS
Arrangements have been made for webcasting (live video broadcasting over the internet) in over 50 per cent of the polling stations. On top of that micro observers have been deployed in all polling stations. As many as 361 observers (127 generals, 67 police officials and 167 expenditure observers) had already reached their constituencies several days before the polls.
5. POLLING TIME
Voting will start at 7 am and end at 6 pm. However, the closure of poll timing differs in some seats.
Following is the list of states voting in the first phase:
Tamil Nadu (All 39 seats)
Rajasthan (12 of 25 seats)
Uttar Pradesh (8 out of 80 seats)
Madhya Pradesh (6 out of 29 seats)
Maharashtra (5 out of 48 seats)
Uttarakhand (All 5 seats)
Assam (5 of 14 seats)
Bihar (4 of 40 seats)
West Bengal (3 of 42 seats)
Arunachal Pradesh (Both of the 2 seats in the state)
Manipur (Both of the 2 seats in the state)
Meghalaya (Both of the 2 seats in the state)
Chhattisgarh (1 out of 11 seats)
Mizoram (sole seat)
Nagaland (sole seat)
Sikkim (sole seat)
Tripura (1 out of 2 seats)
Jammu and Kashmir (1 out of 5 seats)
Andaman and Nicobar Islands (sole seat)
Lakshadweep (sole seat)
Puducherry (sole seat)
On the day, voting will also be carried out for the 92 Assembly seats in Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim.