Above 40 percent voting recorded till 1 pm

New Delhi: Voting for the first phase of 18th Lok Sabha elections is underway in 21 States and Union Territories comprising a total of 102 seats. At 1 pm, about 40 percent voter turnout was recorded.

Polling is held in Tamil Nadu (all 39 LS Seats), Rajasthan (12 seats), Uttar Pradesh (8 seats), Madhya Pradesh (6 seats), Assam (5 seats), Maharashtra (5 seats), Uttarakhand (5 seats),  Bihar (4 seats), West Bengal (3 seats), Manipur (2 seats), Arunachal Pradesh (2 seats), Meghalaya (2 seats), and one each seat in Jammu and Kashmir, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chattisgarh, Tripura, Mizoram, Nagaland, Puducherry, Sikkim and Lakshadweep.

More than 16.63 crore voters, including 8.40 crore men, 8.23 crore women and 11,371 from third gender are expected to vote in nearly 2 lakh polling booths.

A total of 35.67 lakh first time voters are also expected to take part in voting with 3.51 lakh among them in the  age group of 20-29 years. Among the prominent leaders in fray are Union Ministers Nitin Gadkari (Nagpur – Maharashtra), Jitin Prasada (Pilibhit – UP), Kiren Rijiju (Arunachal West – Arunachal Pradesh), Sarbananda Sonowal (Dibrugarh – Assam), Jitendra Singh (Udhampur – Jammu and Kashmir), Bhupendra Yadav (Alwar – Rajasthan), L. Murugan (Nilgiris – TN), Nisith Pramanik (Coochbehar – West Bengal) and Arjun Ram Meghwal (Bikaner – Rajasthan).

The first phase of polling will also witness former Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan (Chennai South), Karti Chidambaram (Sivaganga), Tamil Nadu State BJP President K. Annamalai (Coimbatore), Kanimozhi (Thoothukudi) and Dayanidhi Maran (Chennai Central), all in Tamil Nadu and Deputy Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi (Jorhat – Assam) in the fray

The BJP-led NDA, which is eyeing victory in 400 seats out of 543 LS seats going for the polls in seven phases, had won 41 out of 102 seats where polling is being held today and the Congress-led UPA had won 45 seats in the 2019 polls.

Meanwhile, six out of these seats have been redrawn as part of the delimitation process. Polling to all 102 seats that began at 7 am this morning will end at 6 pm.

The elections to the 18th Lok Sabha comprising a total of 543 seats will be held in seven phases from Apr. 19 to June 1.

The elections to 28 LS seats in Karnataka will be held in two phases — Apr. 26 and May 7. The results of all 543 seats will be announced on June 4.

Today’s voting also witnessed elections being held to 92 Assembly seats in Arunachal Pradesh (60 seats) and Sikkim  (32 seats).