New Delhi: The much-anticipated 2024 Lok Sabha elections kick-started on Friday. This first phase witnessed voting on 102 parliamentary seats spread across 21 states and Union Territories.
Top Updates:
- As of 7 pm, the recorded voter turnout stood at 60.03% percent. Notable turnout figures include Tamil Nadu with 72.09 percent, Rajasthan with 41.5 percent, Uttar Pradesh with 47.4 percent, Madhya Pradesh with 53.4 percent and Bihar with 48.23% polling recorded till 6 PM.
- Polling stopped at 5 Thongju, 31 Khongman Zone in Imphal, Manipur after some women alleged irregularities and created a ruckus. The polling officer closed the polling booth.
- Almost zero voter turnout has been reported across six districts in Nagaland today, following the Eastern Nagaland People’s Organisation’s call for a boycott due to demands for greater financial autonomy.
- Uttar Pradesh constituencies, on an average, recorded a voter turnout of 36.96 percent till 1 pm.
- By 1 PM, 40% voter turnout was recorded across the states.
- Armed attackers reportedly attempted to capture a polling booth and vandalized Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in the Kohongman Zone 3 constituency of Manipur’s Imphal East district. Violence-hit Manipur recorded a voter turnout of 45.68 percent till 1 pm on Friday.
- Over 24.5% voter turnout was recorded from across the states till 11 am.
- Voter turnout in UP seats till 11 am, Muzaffarnagar- 23.62%, Saharanpur- 28.64 %, Moradabad- 25.00 %, Kairana – 25.89 %, Nagina- 26.93 %, Bijnor- 25.50 %, Rampur- 20.71 %, Pilibhit- 26.88%
- By 10 am, a voter turnout of over 9.7% was recorded across various states as polling commenced in multiple regions.
- Voter turnout till 9 am for phase 1 of polling: Lakshadweep records the lowest, 5.59%; Tripura records the highest, 15.21%
- The voting in this initial phase covers all seats in Tamil Nadu (39), Rajasthan (12), Uttar Pradesh (8), Madhya Pradesh (6), Uttarakhand (5), Arunachal Pradesh (2), Meghalaya (2), Andaman and Nicobar Islands (1), Mizoram (1), Nagaland (1), Puducherry (1), Sikkim (1), and Lakshadweep (1).
- Assam and Maharashtra will each see five seats contested, Bihar (4), West Bengal (3), Manipur (2), and one each in Tripura, Jammu and Kashmir, and Chhattisgarh.
- Alongside the Lok Sabha polls, four states — Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Sikkim, and Arunachal Pradesh — will have elections. Arunachal Pradesh (60 seats) and Sikkim (32) are set to hold their state elections concurrently with the parliamentary polls.
- The polling today features notable candidates, including Union ministers: Nitin Gadkari, Jitendra Singh, Kiren Rijiju, Arjun Ram Meghwal, Sanjiv Balyan, former Telangana governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, Congress’s Deputy Leader in Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi, and former Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal.
- Google marked the beginning of the Lok Sabha election 2024 in India with a special Google Doodle featuring an index finger marked with ink.
- According to the data released by the Election Commission of India (ECI), a total of 1.87 lakh polling stations have been set up, while 18 lakh personnel have been deployed across the 102 constituencies going to the polls.
- In the last Lok Sabha elections in 2019, the UPA won 45 of the 102 seats in this phase, while the NDA secured 41. With six seats redrawn due to delimitation, the electoral landscape promises intriguing contests. The results of this phase, along with the subsequent ones, will culminate in the vote counting on June 4.
- Twenty-seven members of a joint family in Nagpur cast their votes today despite losing an elderly relative a day ago, reported news agency PTI. Madanmohan Khemani (74), second of five brothers, died on Thursday. “He always talked about the importance of voting,” said Manoj Khemani, his brother. “Hence, all 27 of us today exercised our franchise at the Wardhaman Nagar polling booth. After that we took part in the Utthavna (post-death ritual),” he said.
- Around 2,500 voters crossed the India-Bangladesh border today to cast their votes in Tripura, reported news agency ANI. The barbed wire fence might have cast a shadow on their lives but none wanted to miss the opportunity to exercise their franchise in the biggest festival of democracy. A substantial number of voters in Tripura are forced to stay beyond the barbed fences for historical reasons.
- For the first time in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, seven members of the Shompen tribe, a particularly vulnerable tribal group (PVTGs) of Great Nicobar Islands exercised their voting rights for the lone Lok Sabha seat in the union territory.
