Porni Banerjee | ১৯ এপ্রিল ২০২৪ ১২ : ৩৩Porni Banerjee

The nationwide election for Lok Sabha began today (April 19) and the first of the seven – phase exercise is being held in 102 seats across 21 states and Union Territories. The polling commenced at 7 am and will end at 6 pm.

On the first day, polls are being held on all seats of Tamil Nadu (39), Rajasthan (12), Uttar Pradesh (8), Madhya Pradesh (6), 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 five seats each in Assam and Maharashtra, four in Bihar, three in West Bengal, two in Manipur, and one each in Tripura, Jammu and Kashmir, and Chhattisgarh.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, in their respective power-packed campaigns, urged people to exercise their franchise in a peaceful way.

However, sporadic incidents of political unrests were witnessed during ongoing elections in West Bengal where voting process is currently being conducted in Cooch Behar, Alipurduar and Jalpaiguri. On the other hand, a blast was reported in Naxal-hit Bastar region 500 meters from a polling booth in Galgam area of Bijapur in Chhattisgarh during polling, in which a security personnel survived injuries.

At least 16.63 crore voters are eligible to cast their votes in the first phase at 1.87 lakh polling stations, with 18 lakh officials deployed for poll duty. A total of 8.4 crore men, 8.23 crore women and 11,371 third-gender electors are eligible to vote this year. In addition, as many as 35.67 lakh are first-time voters in the age group of 20-29.