Lok Sabha Election Voting: With the start of voting in the first phase of Lok Sabha elections on Friday, an electoral mega-kumbh is going to take place in the world’s largest democracy. In the first phase, voting will be held on 102 parliamentary seats in 21 states and union territories. In the first phase, assembly elections will also be held in Arunachal Pradesh (60 seats) and Sikkim (32 seats).
Prominent candidates in this phase include Union ministers Nitin Gadkari, Sarbananda Sonowal and Bhupendra Yadav, Congress’s Gaurav Gogoi, and DMK’s Kanimozhi. According to the Election Commission, voting will start at 7 in the morning and continue till 6 in the evening. The Commission has deployed more than 18 lakh polling personnel at 1.87 lakh polling stations. More than 16.63 crore voters will be able to exercise their franchise at these polling stations.
The voters include 8.4 crore men, 8.23 crore women and 11,371 third gender. 35.67 lakh people have become voters for the first time. Along with this, there are 3.51 crore youth voters in the age group of 20-29 years.