India Celebrates World’s Biggest Festival of Democracy: 5 Facts About Phase 1 LS Polls

New Delhi: The high-octane 2024 Lok Sabha polls kicked off today with voting for 102 seats spread across 21 states and Union territories in the first of the seven phases of the world’s largest electoral exercise as Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeks a rare third term in office. Over 16.63 crore people are eligible to vote on Friday. India has nearly 97 crore registered voters for elections to the 543-member Lok Sabha, with BJP’s ambition to emerge as a force challenging the Dravidian parties in Tamil Nadu and determination to retain its strongholds across the country set to be put to a stern test and the opposition INDIA bloc facing a herculean task to dislodge the BJP-led NDA. 

In the first phase, there are 35.67 lakh first-time voters, besides 3.51 crore young voters in the age group of 20-29 years. The counting of votes in the elections that will conclude on June one will be taken up on June 4. Polling will begin at 7 AM and end at 6 PM. The voters comprise 8.4 crore men, 8.23 crore women and 11,371 from third gender. The Election Commission has deployed over 18 lakh polling personnel across 1.87 lakh polling stations. 

Lok Sabha Polls 2024 Phase I: 5-Point Cheatsheet

102 Seats to vote in Phase 1: Polling will be held for 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, 5 seats each in Assam and Maharashtra, 4 in Bihar, 3 in West Bengal, 2 in Manipur, and 1 seat each in Tripura, Jammu and Kashmir and Chhattisgarh. Simultaneously, assembly elections will be held in Arunachal Pradesh (60 seats) and Sikkim (32 seats).

Key Candidates: Among the prominent candidates in the fray in the first phase are Union ministers Nitin Gadkari and Sarbananda Sonowal, Gaurav Gogoi of Congress and DMK's Kanimozhi. An aggressive K Annamalai, who is steering the BJP campaign in Tamil Nadu, is also among the contestants. Besides Gadkari, Sonowal, seven other Union ministers--Bhupendra Yadav, Kiren Rijiju, Sanjeev Baliyan, Jitendra Singh, Arjun Ram Meghwal, L Murugan and Nisith Pramanik--are in the poll fray in the first phase.

2 Former CMs in Fray: Two former chief ministers--Biplab Kumar Deb (Tripura) and Nabam Tuki (Arunachal Pradesh)--and Tamilisai Soundararajan, who recently resigned as governor of Telangana to return to active politics, also figure in phase 1 poll battle. Soundararajan is contesting from Chennai South on BJP ticket.

Most keenly watched constituencies: Coimbatore, the hub of western Tamil Nadu, is the most keenly watched constituency in the state and Annamalai, the BJP's state chief, is battling against Dravidian giants the DMK and AIADMK. He also faces a challenge from the Tamil nationalist, Naam Tamilar Katchi in the four-cornered contest with anti-DMK-Congress votes split into three. Besides, all eyes will also be set on Chhindwara, Pilibhit, Nagpur, Saharanpur, Udhampur, Arunachal West, Jorhat constituencies. 

Ensuring Peace and Purity: Central forces have been deployed adequately at polling stations to secure the polling process. Webcasting will be done in more than 50 % of the polling stations along with the deployment of micro observers in all polling stations. 361 Observers (127 General Observers, 67 Police Observers, 167 Expenditure Observers) have already reached their Constituencies days before the polls. They serve as the eyes and ears of the Commission to exercise utmost vigilance. Additionally, Special Observers have been deployed in certain states. A total of 4627 Flying Squads, 5208 Statistics Surveillance Teams, 2028 Video Surveillance Teams and 1255 Video Viewing Teams are keeping surveillance round the clock to strictly and swiftly deal with any form of inducement of voters. A total of 1374 inter-state and 162 international Border check posts are keeping strict vigil on any illicit flow of liquor, drugs, cash and freebies. Strict surveillance has been kept at sea and air routes.