New Delhi: Come tomorrow, and the curtains will go up on the battle that pits BJP’s ‘Sankalp Patra’ towards Congress’s ‘Nyay Patra’, the slogan of “Aap Ki Bar, 400 Paar” towards “combat to save lots of Structure and democracy”. The high-octane Lok Sabha elections is about to kick off on Friday, with 102 seats throughout 21 states and Union Territories going to polls within the first part.
Whereas the Nationwide Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by Prime Minister Modi is eyeing a stronger majority and a 3rd straight time period on the Centre, the Opposition coalition beneath the banner of I.N.D.I.A is looking for a rebound of its electoral destiny following setbacks within the 2014 and 2019 polls.
Within the first part, polling is scheduled for all Lok Sabha seats in 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).
Voting can even happen for 12 seats in Rajasthan, eight in Uttar Pradesh, six in Madhya Pradesh, 5 every in Assam and Maharashtra, 4 in Bihar, three in West Bengal, two in Manipur, and one seat every in Tripura, Jammu and Kashmir, and Chhattisgarh.
Additional, of all of the states going to polls within the opening part, the highlight might be on Tamil Nadu the place the Dravidian heavyweights and the Congress face the hardest problem they’ve in current historical past from a resurgent BJP led by the firebrand state chief Ok Annamalai.
Simultaneous polling can even be held for 92 Meeting constituencies of Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim.
#WATCH | Gangtok: Sikkim Meeting elections might be held tomorrow concurrently with the primary part of #LokSabhaElections2024
D Anandan, Chief Electoral Officer of Sikkim says, “…We now have 1 Parliamentary Constituency and 32 Meeting Constituencies. Out of those 32, we now have a… pic.twitter.com/xYyi6ZvYmm
— ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2024
Distinguished contenders within the fray embody Union Ministers Nitin Gadkari and Sarbananda Sonowal, Congress’s Gaurav Gogoi, DMK’s Kanimozhi, and the BJP’s Ok Annamalai.
Seven Union Ministers, together with Bhupendra Yadav, Kiren Rijiju, Sanjeev Baliyan, Jitendra Singh, Arjun Ram Meghwal, L Murugan, and Nisith Pramanik are additionally contesting within the first part. Different key contestants embody former chief ministers Biplab Kumar Deb (Tripura) and Nabam Tuki (Arunachal Pradesh), together with Tamilisai Soundararajan, who resigned as Telangana’s governor to re-enter energetic politics, contesting from Chennai South on a BJP ticket.
Tight safety preparations have been made in Manipur, which has been witness to ethnic violence during the last one 12 months. The Interior Manipur Lok Sabha constituency, which includes 32 of the 60 Meeting segments, and 15 Meeting segments of the Outer Manipur Lok Sabha seat will go to polls in first part. Voting might be held within the remaining 13 segments of Outer Manipur within the second part on April 26.
On ballot preparations in Uttar Pradesh’s Moradabad, DM Manvendra Singh informed ANI, “…16 zonal Justice of the Peace will do the supervision…We now have a complete of 1728 cubicles, all polling events will attain there after which from 7 am onwards, it should start. We’re going to make sure that polling takes place neutrally.”
#WATCH | Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh: On ballot preparations for the primary part, DM Manvendra Singh says, “…16 zonal Justice of the Peace will do the supervision…We now have a complete of 1728 cubicles, all polling events will attain there after which from 7 am onwards, it should start. We’re going to… pic.twitter.com/esvo5LCjZ6
— ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2024
“We now have known as 5000 folks right here; greater than 1100 presiding officers are current…Sector and zonal officers are maintaining a tally of the preparations. We now have 150 girls polling stations solely…safety officers are additionally girls there,” Extra District Commissioner (ADC) Assam’s Sonitpur Kabita Kakati Konwar informed ANI.
A complete of 16.63 crore individuals are eligible to forged their votes on Friday. The primary part has 35.67 lakh first-time voters and three.51 crore younger voters aged between 20 to 29 years.
Polling hours are set from 7am to 6pm, with a voting populace comprising 8.4 crore males, 8.23 crore girls, and 11,371 people figuring out because the third gender. The Election Fee has mobilised over 18 lakh polling personnel throughout 1.87 lakh polling stations to facilitate easy voting.