The first round of voting for choosing new members of Parliament started today in 21 states and union territories. By 10 am, over 9.7% of voters had already cast their votes across these states. People are voting today to elect MPs from seats in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, 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.
More than 16.63 crore voters, which includes over 8 crore men and 8 crore women, will vote at nearly 2 lakh polling booths.
Some important candidates contesting today are government ministers Nitin Gadkari, Bhupendra Yadav, Kiren Rijiju, Jitendra Singh, Arjun Ram Meghwal and Sarbananda Sonowal. From opposition, Congress’s Gaurav Gogoi, DMK’s Kanimozhi and BJP’s Tamil Nadu chief K Annamalai are also in the race.
The BJP-led alliance wants to get more seats, while the opposition INDIA group hopes to do better. In 2019 polls, the BJP alliance had won 41 out of these 102 seats and opposition had won 45. But 6 of these seats have new boundaries now.
The full elections to choose all 543 Parliament members will happen in 7 rounds, from April 19 to June 1. The final results will come on June 4.