Shooting by miscreants broke out at a polling station at Thamanpokpi under the Moirang Assembly segment. TMC and the BJP workers clashed with each other in various parts of the violence-prone Cooch Behar seat
19 April 2024 (Ozi News Centre)
Voting for the first phase of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections began on April 19 in 102 constituencies, across 17 States and four Union Territories. Among the key faces in the fray are 8 Union Ministers Nitin Gadkari, Kiren Rijiju, Sarbanada Sonowal, Jitendra Singh and Bhupendra Yadav, besides Gaurav Gogoi of the Congress, Kanimozhi of the DMK and K. Annamalai, the Tamil Nadu BJP chief.
With 39 seats from Tamil Nadu and one seat from Puducherry, the largest number of seats in the first phase is from southern India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the State multiple times during campaigning, as the BJP sought a foothold in the State. However, the leading contenders are still the Dravidian majors, the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK).
Voting is also held in 25 seats in Rajasthan, eight in Uttar Pradesh, six in Madhya Pradesh, five seats in Maharashtra, Uttarakhand and Assam, four in Bihar, three in West Bengal, two in Arunachal Pradesh, and one seat each in Tripura, Jammu and Kashmir and Chhattisgarh.
Simultaneously, Assembly elections in Arunachal Pradesh (60 seats) and Sikkim (32 seats) are also being held.
Uttar Pradesh will see a three-way contest between the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the INDIA bloc, and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). In Jammu and Kashmir, the only Parliament seat going to the polls in the first phase is Udhampur-Doda. The BJP’s Jitendra Singh, a Union Minister considered close to the Prime Minister, is fielded against Congress’ Chaudhary Lal Singh and the Democratic Progressive Azad Party’s G.M. Saroori. The other crucial States for the saffron party are West Bengal and Maharashtra.
While the BJP-led NDA under Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seeking a stronger majority, the constituents of the opposition INDIA bloc are hoping for a rebound after facing reverses in the 2014 and 2019 elections.
