The 2024 Lok Sabha elections will kick off on Friday, April 19, with the first phase scheduled in 102 seats in 21 states and Union Territories. Among those in the fray are notable leaders like Nitin Gadkari, Sarbanada Sonowal, Bhupendra Yadav, Gaurav Gogoi of Congress, DMK's Kanimozhi, and K Annamalai of BJP.
Assembly elections in Arunachal Pradesh (60 seats) and Sikkim (32 seats) will also be held simultaneously.
Voting will begin at 7 AM and end at 6 PM. The Election Commission has deployed over 18 lakh polling personnel across 1.87 lakh polling stations where over 16.63 crore voters will exercise their franchise.
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Voters include 8.4 crore men, 8.23 crore women, and 11,371 from the third gender. As many as 35.67 lakh first-time voters are registered, and 3.51 crore young voters in the 20-29 age group are also registered.
The BJP-led NDA is looking to win with a greater majority. However, the INDIA Bloc hopes for a rebound after facing reverses in the 2014 and 2019 elections.
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Polling will be held in all seats of Tamil Nadu (39), Uttarakhand (5), Arunachal Pradesh (2), Meghalaya (2), Andaman and Nicobar Islands (1), Mizoram (1), Nagaland (1), Puducherry (1), Sikkim (1) and Lakshadweep (1).
Besides, there will be voting in 12 seats in Rajasthan, 8 in Uttar Pradesh, 6 in Madhya Pradesh, five seats each in Assam and Maharashtra, 4 in Bihar, 3 in West Bengal, two seats in Manipur, and one seat each in Tripura, Jammu and Kashmir and Chhattisgarh.
Campaigning for the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections ended on Wednesday evening.
Six other Union ministers—Kiren Rijiju, Sanjeev Baliyan, Jitendra Singh, Arjun Ram Meghwal, L Murugan, and Nisith Pramanik—are among the contestants, along with two former chief ministers—Biplab Kumar Deb (Tripura) and Nabam Tuki (Arunachal Pradesh)—and former Telangana governor Tamilisai Soundararajan.
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