LS polls: Campaigning for first phase in 102 seats ends

New Delhi: The first round of the Lok Sabha elections, which will take place on April 19, will see voting in 102 parliamentary constituencies spread across 21 states and Union territories. The campaigning for these seats ended on Wednesday.

Voting in the first phase will take place in the following places: Arunachal Pradesh (2 seats), Assam (5), Bihar (4), Mizoram (1), Nagaland (1), Rajasthan (12), Sikkim (1), Tamil Nadu (39), Tripura (1), Uttar Pradesh (8), Uttarakhand (5), West Bengal (3), Andaman and Nicobar (1), Jammu and Kashmir (1), Lakshadweep (1), and Puducherry (1).

Candidates for eight parliamentary seats wrapped up their campaigns on Wednesday night in Uttar Pradesh ahead of the first round of polls on April 19.

On the last day of the campaign, Saharanpur and Moradabad hosted rallies for Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav and Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who are both part of the opposition's INDIA alliance, ANI reported.

The seats of Saharanpur, Bijnor, Kairana, Muzaffarnagar, Nagina, Moradabad, Rampur, and Pilibhit are scheduled to go to elections in the first round on Friday.

Similarly, Uttarakhand's election campaign came to an end this evening at five o'clock, according to Chief Electoral Officer B VRC Purushottam.

On the final day of the election campaign, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami took part in a roadshow in Haldwani earlier on Wednesday.

The BJP is trying to hold onto all five of the seats it won in Uttarakhand for a third term, having done so in the general elections of 2014 and 2019.

In Madhya Pradesh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spearheaded the BJP's campaign, which was centred on the development platform, for the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections, which concluded on Wednesday.

Voters will decide the fate of 88 candidates vying for six MP seats in the first phase, which is set for April 19.

In Maharashtra, the Lok Sabha election campaign concluded on Wednesday evening in five Vidarbha constituencies.

In the first phase, polling on April 19 will take place in the constituencies of Nagpur, Ramtek, Bhandara-Gondia, Chandrapur, and Gadchiroli.

On Wednesday evening, the Udhampur parliamentary seat in Jammu and Kashmir concluded its campaign. It is facing its first significant election contest since Article 370 was repealed.

The first round of the election, which is scheduled for April 19, will determine the fate of 12 candidates for the Lok Sabha seat in Udhampur.

Udhampur, Jammu and Kashmir Deputy Commissioner Saloni Rai said, "On April 17 at 6 pm, we suspended all election-related campaigning, and political parties have been directed to not hold campaigning, roadshows, or canvassing other than door-to-door campaigning."

"Section 144 is also imposed. Flying squad and static surveillance teams have been deployed. Our main objective is a free and fair and inducement-free election," said Rai.

Meanwhile, the first phase of the campaign for the three Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal that are up for election on April 19—Cooch Behar (SC), Jalpaiguri (SC), and Alipurduars (ST)—ended at 6:00 PM on Wednesday.

There are fourteen candidates running from Cooch Behar for the legislative elections, one of whom is Nisith Pramanik, a union minister and sitting MP.

Voter debate centred on corruption, poverty, and pre-poll pledges between the main opponents, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress, during the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections in Chhattisgarh, which ended on Wednesday evening.

Out of the eleven Lok Sabha seats in the state, Naxal-impacted Bastar is the only one that will vote in the first phase on April 19. This exercise will take place in the shadow of the significant counter-insurgency operation that took place in the Kanker district on April 16.

Political parties in Mizoram made desperate attempts to win over voters on Wednesday as the campaign for the state's lone Lok Sabha seat came to a close.

The Arunachal Pradesh simultaneous polls on April 19 came to a finish on Wednesday evening for the election of 50 state assembly lawmakers and two Lok Sabha MPs.

The BJP has already opened an account by winning ten seats in the Arunachal Pradesh assembly.

The first phase of the Lok Sabha poll campaigning for the five Assam Lok Sabha seats, including the well-known Dibrugarh seat where a Union Minister and a former Chief Minister of Assam are running, concluded at 5 p.m.

First-phase voting for 102 seats in the Lok Sabha election will take place in 21 states, with five seats located in Upper Assam.

An official from the election department stated that all arrangements, including those related to security, have been made for the polling to take place on April 19.

Roadshows, public gatherings, and rallies characterised the two-week high-decibel campaign.

Speaking about the Andaman and Nicobar Islands' Lok Sabha election preparations, South Andaman SP Niharika Bhatt says, "The election campaign will be banned from 6 PM today and no political gathering or street processions will be allowed, that's called the 'Silent' period.

"Only door-to-door campaigning will be allowed and that too without speakers. DC has also given orders regarding Section 144 to maintain law and order. Voting will start at 7 in the morning on April 19 and go until 6 p.m. A few pink polling booths have been established where all the officials will be women," said the official.

To elect the 543 members of the 18th Lok Sabha, India's general elections of 2024 will take place over the course of seven phases, from April 19 to June 1. On June 4, the results will be announced.