The Lok Sabha election 2024 are scheduled from 19th April 2024. In the first phase, elections will be held in 102 seats of 21 states and union territories. According to the Election Commission, a total of 1625 candidates are in the fray in the first phase of the election. There are 1491 male and 134 female candidates. In the first phase, 8 Union Ministers, 2 former Chief Ministers and one former Governor are trying their luck in the election. In the last elections (2019), the UPA had won 45 of these 102 seats and the NDA 41. Assembly elections will be held in Arunachal Pradesh (60 seats) and Sikkim (32 seats) along with the first phase of Lok Sabha polls.
In the first phase of election 2024, polling will be held in 39 seats in Tamil Nadu, 12 out of 25 seats in Rajasthan, 8 out of 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh and 6 seats in Madhya Pradesh. Polling will be held in 5 seats in Maharashtra, 5 in Assam, 5 in Uttarakhand, 4 in Bihar, 3 in West Bengal, 2 in Meghalaya, 2 in Arunachal Pradesh and 2 in Manipur. Apart from this, 1-1 seats in Puducherry, Mizoram, Chhattisgarh, Jammu and Kashmir, Lakshadweep, Sikkim, Tripura, Nagaland and Andaman and Nicobar are going to polls. The results will be out on June 4.
What’s the voting time?
The voting will take place from 8 in the morning to 5 in the evening. But those who will be in line till 5 o’clock will be allowed to cast their votes.
Votes will be cast on these seats.
Tamil Nadu – Chennai Central, Sriperumbudur, Kancheepuram, Arakkonam, Vellore, Krishnagiri, Dharmapuri, Tiruvannamalai, Arani, Viluppuram, Kallakurichi, Pollachi, Dindigul, Karur, Tiruchirappalli, Perambalur, Cuddalore, Chidambaram, Mayiladuthurai, Nagapattinam, Thanjavur, Sivaganga, Madurai, Theni, Virudhunagar, Ramanathapuram, Thoothukkudi, Tenkasi, Tirunelveli and Kanyakumari.
Uttar Pradesh: Moradabad, Pilibhit and Rampur.These are Saharanpur, Kairana, Bijnor, Muzaffarnagar and Nagina.
Madhya Pradesh: Mandla, Balaghat and Chhindwara. Sidhi, Shahdol, Jabalpur.
Rajasthan: Alwar, Bharatpur, Karauli-Dholpur, Dausa and Nagaur. Ganganagar, Bikaner, Churu, Jhunjhunu, Sikar, Jaipur Rural, Jaipur,
Assam: Kaziranga, Sonitpur, Lakhimpur, Dibrugarh and Jorhat.
Bihar: Aurangabad, Gaya, Nawada and Jamui.
Uttarakhand: Tehri Garhwal, Garhwal, Almora, Nainital, Udham Singh Nagar and Haridwar.
Maharashtra: Ramtek, Nagpur, Bhandara-Gondiya, Gadchiroli, Chimur and Chandrapur.
West Bengal: Cooch Behar, Alipurduar and Jalpaiguri.
Manipur: Inner Manipur seat and some assembly constituencies of Outer Manipur.
Chhattisgarh:.
Jammu and Kashmir: Udhampur.
Arunachal Pradesh: Arunachal West, Arunachal East.
Meghalaya: Shillong, Tura.
Tripura: West Tripura.
Mizoram
Lakshadweep
Puducherry
Sikkim
Nagaland
Andaman and Nicobar
In the first phase of Election 2024, the fate of 8 Union ministers will be locked in the EVMs
Important Seats to Be Watched
Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari is contesting from Nagpur seat in Maharashtra.
Union Minister of State for Earth Sciences and Food Processing Industries Kiren Rijiju is contesting from Arunachal West.
Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal is contesting from the Dibrugarh Lok Sabha seat in Assam.
Union Minister of State for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Sanjeev Balyan is contesting from Muzaffarnagar.
Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office Dr Jitendra Singh is contesting from Udhampur-Kathua-Doda seat in Jammu and Kashmir.
Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav is contesting from Alwar seat in Rajasthan.
Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal is contesting from the Bikaner Lok Sabha seat in Rajasthan. He is pitted against former Congress minister Govind Ram Meghwal.
Minister of State for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying and Information and Broadcasting L Murugan has been fielded from Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu.
Jitin Prasada, a cabinet minister in the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh, is the BJP candidate from Pilibhit. The BJP has denied ticket to sitting MP Varun Gandhi.
Former Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb is contesting from the West Tripura seat. He is pitted against state Congress president Ashis Kumar Saha.
A Raja of the DMK is contesting from the Nilgiris constituency in Tamil Nadu. He was a minister in the UPA-2 government.
Karti Chidambaram is contesting the Sivaganga Lok Sabha seat in Tamil Nadu. He is the son of senior Congress leader and former Union minister P Chidambaram. P Chidambaram has been a seven-time MP from this seat.
Tamil Nadu BJP president Annamalai is contesting from Coimbatore.
Tamilisai Soundararajan, who resigned as the Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry and Telangana, is the BJP candidate from Chennai South.
The Congress has fielded Gaurav Gogoi from the Jorhat Lok Sabha seat in Assam. He is the son of former Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi.
Nakul Nath, son of former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath, is contesting from Chhindwara. Kamal Nath has been a nine-time MP from the seat since 1980.
Imran Masood is the Congress candidate from the Saharanpur Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh. This Lok Sabha seat is located in the western part of Uttar Pradesh.
The constituencies going to the polls in the first phase of Election 2024 are Nagpur, Nagina, Kanyakumari, Cooch Behar, Chennai Central, Muzaffarnagar, Saharanpur, Kairana, Pilibhit, Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Jaipur, Chhindwara, Jamui, Bastar, Nainital and Lakshadweep. All eyes will be on these hot seats. Apart from this, there will also be an eye on Assam’s Kaziranga, Sonitpur, Lakhimpur, Dibrugarh and Jorhat seats.
All eyes will be on the Cooch Behar constituency in the three Lok Sabha constituencies that will go to polls on Friday in West Bengal. Union Minister of State for Home Affairs and BJP candidate Nisith Pramanik is pitted against Trinamool Congress candidate Jagdish Chandra Barma Basunia in Cooch Behar. In Sitalkuchi in the same parliamentary constituency, four people were killed in alleged firing by central forces during the assembly elections in 2021. The incident has also been made an issue by the Trinamool Congress during the current election campaign.
Rajasthan
In Rajasthan, polling will be held in 12 Lok Sabha seats in the first phase. 75000 police personnel and other security forces have been deployed. In view of the Lok Sabha elections in the state, 225 check posts have been set up by sealing the borders of Rajasthan with the states of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.
Uttarakhand
The first phase of polling for 102 Lok Sabha seats in the country, including Uttarakhand, will be held on April 19. Elaborate security arrangements have been made to ensure safe and peaceful polling in all the five Lok Sabha seats in Uttarakhand. Polling for all five seats in Uttarakhand has ended. There are 83,37,914 voters in the state. The fate of 55 candidates will be decided on April 19. Over one lakh police personnel have been deployed.
Some Interesting Facts
The first phase of polling for eight Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh will be held on April 19. Voters are also ready to exercise their franchise in these seats. Almost all the seats are witnessing a triangular contest between the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance, the opposition alliance Indian National Development Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
Over 18 lakh polling personnel deployed across 1.87 lakh polling stations The Election Commission has deployed over 18 lakh polling personnel across 1.87 lakh polling stations. Over 16.63 crore voters will exercise their franchise at these polling stations. The voters include 8.4 crore men, 8.23 crore women and 11,371 of the third gender. There are 35.67 lakh first-time voters in the state. There are 3.51 crore young voters in the age group of 20-29 years.
Over 1.13 cr voters to cast their votes in Madhya Pradesh’s 6 seats
Madhya Pradesh has 46 assembly constituencies spread across 13 districts. A total of 88 candidates, including 81 men and seven women, are in the fray. The highest number of 19 candidates are in Jabalpur and the lowest number of 10 candidates are in Shahdol. The polling will be held from 7 in the morning to 6 in the evening. Polling will be held in three assembly segments of Balaghat parliamentary constituency – Baihar, Lanji and Paraswada – which are Naxal-affected areas, from 7 am to 4 am.
Of the 102 seats going to polls in the first phase of Election 2024, on April 19, 42 have three or more candidates with criminal cases. The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) gave this information based on its analysis. ADR analysed the election affidavits of 1618 candidates out of 1625 candidates who filed nominations for the first phase.
Of the 1,618 candidates, 16 per cent or 252 candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves. As many as 161 candidates, or 10 per cent, have declared serious criminal cases against themselves.
Security Arrangements for 1st Phase of Election 2024
In the first phase of Election 2024, polling will be held in Naxal-affected areas like Gadchiroli in Maharashtra and Bastar in Chhattisgarh. Heli dropping of security personnel is being done in sensitive areas for safe and peaceful elections. Helicopters of the Air Force have been used in the Heli dropping of security personnel. According to election officials, 15 thousand security forces will be deployed for voting in Gadchiroli on Friday. There are 40 companies of CAPF to ensure free and fair elections. Apart from this, 30 companies of CRPF and 17 companies of SRPF are also deployed here. A total of 87 companies of central forces have been deployed on election duty.