Voting in 17 States and four UTs started on time at 7 a.m., with a large number of MPs and CMs in office casting ballots. Among the early voters are Congress candidate Gaurav Gogoi, sitting Tura MP Agatha K. Sangma, and Meghalaya chief minister Conrad K. Sangma.
April 19 marked the start of voting in 102 constituencies spread across 17 States and 4 Union Territories for the first round of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Eight Union Ministers—Nitin Gadkari, Kiren Rijiju, Sarbanada Sonowal, Jitendra Singh, and Bhupendra Yadav—as well as Gaurav Gogoi of the Congress, Kanimozhi of the DMK, and K. Annamalai, the head of the Tamil Nadu BJP—are among the prominent figures involved.
The majority of seats in the first phase are from southern India, with 39 coming from Tamil Nadu and one from Puducherry. During his campaign, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made several trips to the State as the BJP looked to establish itself there. Still, the two Dravidian majorities remain the front-runners: the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and the reigning Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK).
There are 25 seats in Rajasthan, 8 in Uttar Pradesh, 6 in Madhya Pradesh, 5 in Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, and Assam, 4 in Bihar, 3 in West Bengal, 2 in Arunachal Pradesh, and 1 in each of Tripura, Jammu and Kashmir, and Chhattisgarh that are up for election.
Assembly elections are also taking place simultaneously in Sikkim (32 seats) and Arunachal Pradesh (60 seats).
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the INDIA alliance, and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) will compete in Uttar Pradesh in a three-way race. Udhampur-Doda is the sole Parliament seat in Jammu and Kashmir that will be up for election in the first phase. Jitendra Singh, a Union Minister for the BJP who is seen as close to the Prime Minister, is running against Chaudhary Lal Singh of the Congress and the
G.M. Saroori, Democratic Progressive Azad Party. Maharashtra and West Bengal are the other States that are vital to the saffron party.
After suffering setbacks in the elections of 2014 and 2019, the members of the opposition INDIA alliance are looking for a comeback, while the BJP-dominated NDA, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is aiming for a larger majority.
[…] Pradesh, and 1 in each of Tripura, Jammu and Kashmir, and Chhattisgarh that are up for election.Assembly elections are also taking place simultaneously in Sikkim (32 seats) and Arunachal Pradesh (60 seats).The National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the […]