Leader Online Desk: Campaigning in the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections is going to cool down today (April 17) in the evening. Polling for 102 constituencies in 21 states and Union Territories will be held on April 19. Eight Union Ministers, two former Chief Ministers and a former Governor are in the fray in the first phase of the elections to be held on April 19. (Lok Sabha Election 1st Phase)
All eyes on Gadkari's constituency
In the first phase, voting will also be held in Nagpur constituency in Maharashtra. All eyes are on whether Union Road and Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari will score a hat-trick of victories from Nagpur. In 2014, he defeated seven-time MP Vilas Muttemwar by a margin of 2.84 lakh votes. In 2019, he defeated the incumbent Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole by 2.16 lakh votes.
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🗓️ Phase 1 : 19th April, 2024 #LokSabhaElection2024 #ChunavKaParv #DeshKaGarv #YouAreTheOne #ECI pic.twitter.com/d2EkG7E3zI
— Election Commission of India (@ECISVEEP) April 17, 2024
Union Minister Kiren Rijiju is contesting from Arunachal West constituency. He has represented the constituency three times since 2004. Rijiju's main rival is former chief minister and current Arunachal Pradesh Congress president Nabam Tuki.
Former Assam Chief Minister and Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways Sarbanand Sonowal is expected to return to the Lok Sabha from Dibrugarh in Assam. Union Minister of State for Petroleum Rameshwar Teli has been rejected from Dibrugarh and Sonowal has been nominated.
In Uttar Pradesh's Muzaffarnagar, a three-way election is being contested, with Union Minister Sanjeev Balyan fighting between Samajwadi Party's Harindra Malik and BSP's Dara Singh Prajapati. Two-time MP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's cabinet colleague Jitendra Singh is aiming for a hat-trick in Udhampur.
Union minister and Rajya Sabha member Bhupendra Yadav, who has been given a ticket from Alwar in Rajasthan in place of incumbent MP Balaknath, is pitted against Congress MLA Lalit Yadav. Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal is contesting from Rajasthan's Bikaner Lok Sabha constituency against former Congress minister Govind Ram Meghwal.
The Nilgiri Lok Sabha constituency in Tamil Nadu is witnessing a tight contest between DMK's sitting MP and former Telecom Minister A Raja and BJP's Union Minister of State for Fisheries L Murugan. Murugan, who was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Madhya Pradesh, is contesting for the first time from this seat.
Karti Chidambaram is back in the fray
Sivagangai MP Karti Chidambaram is once again in the fray from that seat. His father P Chidambaram has won seven times against BJP's T Devanathan Yadav and AIADMK's Xavier Das. Tamil Nadu BJP President K. Annamalai is contesting from Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, against DMK leader Ganapathi P Rajkumar and AIADMK's Singhai Ramachandran.
Former Governor Sundararajan against Kanimozhi
Tamilisai Sundararajan, who recently returned to active politics after resigning as Governor of Telangana and Lt. Governor of Puducherry, is contesting from Chennai South Lok Sabha constituency. Sundararajan, daughter of veteran Congress leader Kumari Anantha, contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections against DMK leader Kanimozhi. They were defeated by a huge margin. This time Kanimoli is contesting again from this seat. Here National Democratic Alliance (RALOA) ally Tamil Manila Congress (Moopnaar) has fielded SDR Vijayaseelan and AIADMK R Sivasamy Velumani.
Kamal Nath's son again entered the arena from the impregnable citadel of Congress 'Chhindwara'
Nakul Nath, son of Congress leader and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath, is contesting re-election from Chhindwara. Kamal Nath has won the election in this constituency 9 times in a row since 1980. In the 2019 elections, the BJP won 28 of the 29 Lok Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh; But BJP failed to defeat Kamal Nath in Chhindwara. Where Nakul Nath defeated BJP candidate Tabbal by 37,536 votes. Congress had won a single seat in Madhya Pradesh.
High-voltage collision in West Tripura
Of the two Lok Sabha seats in Tripura, the West Tripura constituency will go to polls in the first phase on April 19, with a high-voltage clash between former chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb and state Congress president Ashish Kumar Saha.
Gaurav Gogoi, deputy leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha and son of former Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, has won the Lok Sabha elections twice since 2014 from Assam's Kaliabor constituency. Tarun Gogoi is the party's candidate from neighboring Jorhat. In 2019, BJP candidate Topan Kumar Gogoi won this seat. Due to Gaurav Gogai's 2019 Kaliabor seat delimitation, this time he is contesting from Jorhat.
BJP-Congress face-to-face in Manipur
Manipur Law and Education Minister Basant Kumar Singh is BJP candidate from Inner Manipur seat. He has entered the fray against JNU professor and Congress candidate Bimal Akoizam. Singh is the son of Thaunaojam Chaoba Singh. He was the Minister of State for Sports, Youth Affairs, Culture and Food Processing in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government.
Churu's fight turned out to be interesting
An interesting fight is being witnessed between BJP candidate Devendra Jazaria and Congress's Rahul Kaswan in Churu, a stronghold of BJP in North Rajasthan. Kaswan's defection has made Churu's fight more interesting. Singh, who quit the BJP twice, left the party again in March after the party denied him a ticket. Voting for 543 Lok Sabha seats will be held in seven phases and counting of votes will be held on June 4.
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