The nomination process for 102 Parliamentary constituencies spread across 21 States and Union Territories, where polling would be held in the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections on April 19, began on Wednesday with the issuance of a notification by the Election Commission (EC).
The Commission said March 28 will be the last date for filing nominations for Bihar and March 27 for Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Jammu and Kashmir, Lakshadweep, and Puducherry.
Of the 102 constituencies that will see voting, 39 are in Tamil Nadu, 12 in Rajasthan, 8 in Uttar Pradesh, 6 in Madhya Pradesh, 5 each in Uttarakhand, Assam and Maharashtra, 4 in Bihar, 3 in West Bengal, 2 each in Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, and 1 each in Chhattisgarh, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Jammu and Kashmir, Lakshadweep, and Puducherry.
The last date for filing nomination papers is March 27. However, due to a festival, March 28 is the last date for filing nominations for the Lok Sabha seats in Bihar going to polls in the first phase. Voting in four out of 40 seats in Bihar will be held in the first phase. Nomination papers will be scrutinised on March 28. For Bihar, it would be done on March 30. The last date for withdrawal of candidature is March 20 while for Bihar, it is April 2.
“June 6, the date before which the election shall be completed in all the above-mentioned parliamentary constituencies,” the notification read. The final of the seven phase Lok Sabha polls is scheduled for June 1, with counting of votes slotted for June 4.
Prime Minister Modi-led BJP is seeking a record third term and has kept a 370 seats target for the party in the upcoming polls and 400 for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). The BJP has already released its two lists of candidates, comprising 265 names, including those of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
BJP’s challenger, Congress party is contesting the 2024 Lok Sabha polls as part of the INDIA bloc of Opposition parties.
Like this time, the Lok Sabha elections in 2019 too were held in seven phases with voting in Uttar Pradesh held in all phases. In the first phase, the BJP won six of eight seats that went to polls in this phase. BSP got two seats (Bijnore and Saharanpur) RLD chief Ajit Singh lost from Muzaffarnagar and his son Jayant Chaudhury from Baghpat.
In Itanagar, the state election office issued separate gazette notifications for holding elections to 60 assembly constituencies and two Lok Sabha seats in Arunachal Pradesh. The ruling BJP won both Lok Sabha seats in the 2019 elections. In the assembly, the BJP bagged 41 seats, JD(U) won seven seats, the NPP won five seats, the Congress secured four seats, the PPA won one seat and two Independent candidates also won.
The BJP has declared candidates for all the assembly seats, and named Union minister Kiren Rijiju for the Arunachal West Lok Sabha seat and Tapir Gao as its candidate for the Arunachal East seat. In the first phase in Assam, Kaziranga, Sonitpur, Lakhimpur, Dibrugarh and Lakhimpur will go to the polls on April 19. The prominent candidates in the fray for the first phase are Union minister Sarbananda Sonowal from Dibrugarh against the United Opposition Front of Assam’s Lurinjyoti Gogoi, Congress deputy leader in Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi against sitting BJP MP Topon Gogoi from Jorhat and BJP Rajya Sabha member Kamakhya Prasad Tasa against former Congress MLA Roselina Tirkey in Kaziranga.