Setting in motion the high-voltage electoral battle, the Election Commission (EC) on Monday issued a notification for the April 11 first phase poll for 91 Lok Sabha seats in 20 States and Union Territories across the country.
With the issuance of the notification, the nomination process has begun which would continue till March 25. Simultaneously, notification was also issued for Assembly elections in four States - Andhra Pradesh (all 175 constituencies), Odisha (28 of total 147 constituencies), Sikkim (all 32 constiuencies) and Arunachal Pradesh (all 60 constituencies).
All the constituencies in both the Telugu-speaking States Andhra Pradesh and Telangana will go to polls on April 11 in the first phase. In the first phase, voting will take place in Andhra Pradesh (25 seats), Telangana (17), Uttarakhand (5), Arunachal Pradesh (2), Meghalaya (2), Mizoram (1), Nagaland (1), Sikkim (1), and the Union Territories of Andaman and Nicobar (1) and Lakshadweep (1), the notification said. Eight constituencies (out of 80) in Uttar Pradesh, two (of 42) in West Bengal, four (of 40) in Bihar and two (of 6) in Jammu & Kashmir will also go to polls in the first phase. The electorate in five (of 14 constituencies) in Assam, one (of 11) in Chhattisgarh, seven (of 48) in Maharashtra, one (of two) in Manipur, four (of 21) in Odisha and one (of two) in Tripura would also cast their votes in this phase, the notification said.
Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal will see polling in all the seven phases. Saharanpur, Kairana, Muzaffarnagar, Bijnor, Meerut, Baghpat, Ghaziabad (VK Singh) and Gautam Buddh Nagar (Mahesh Sharma) will vote in the first of the seven-phase general elections.
The Jammu and Baramulla seats in Jammu & Kashmir will also go for polling in the first phase.
All the 175 Assembly seats in the Andhra Pradesh assembly, 60 of Arunachal Pradesh, 32 of Sikkim and 28 of Odisha's 28 assembly seats will also cast their vote in the first phase on April 11.