PM MODI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday urged voters to exercise their franchise in record numbers as the seven-phase Lok Sabha polls started with voting being held in 102 constituencies. "The 2024 Lok Sabha elections commence today! As 102 seats across 21 States and UTs go to the polls, I urge all those voting in these seats to exercise their franchise in record numbers," he said in a post on X.
CONGRESS: As the first phase of the Lok Sabha polls began on Friday, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge urged voters to cast their ballots carefully. "The fight to protect our Constitution and Democracy begins today," he said in a post on 'X'.
As many as 102 of the 543 Lok Sabha constituencies are going to polls on Friday, the highest number among the seven phases of voting to be held across 21 states and Union territories. Results will be declared on June 4.
The ruling BJP is running the campaign on a personal “guarantee” from the incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking a third consecutive term with a higher representation in the Lok Sabha, ie, crossing the 400-seat mark not achieved in the last four decades by any political party.
Modi’s pet refrain this election season has been: “Ab ki baar 400-paar” as he rolled out the BJP's poll promises, described as “Modi ki Guarantee” in all his public meetings and also the BJP sankalp-patra (manifesto) released last Sunday.
The principal Opposition, Congress, is driving on the plank of nyay (justice) for the Indian electorate, while closer home Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has her own shopoth (pledge) to deliver her bag of goodies to the voters.
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“Do we want a kind of India where 95 per cent of the population has nothing to say, nothing to do and nowhere to go?” asked Rahul, in an election campaign in Karnataka’s Kolar, whose message to the voters has been to provide justice to the youth, equal representation, women, farmers and labourers.
An ex-Governor, eight Union ministers and two former chief ministers are among the contestants in the first round.
Union ministers Nitin Gadkari, Kiren Rijiju, Sarbanand Sonowal, Sanjeev Baliyan, Jitendra Singh, Bhupendra Yadav and Arjun Meghwal, L Murugan are among the key BJP names in the fray in the first phase along with former Tripura chief minister Biplab Deb.
Manipur turnout a concern
A test for the Election Commission of India will be to bring voters in the two seats of Manipur, fractured by ethnic strife between the two dominant communities, with over 200 dead in clashes that have continued for almost a year, despite the BJP in power in the state, a state that the Prime Minister kept out of his poll campaign schedule. The Union Home minister Amit Shah, however, addressed a meeting in Imphal on Monday.
For the record, in the 102 seats going to polls on Friday, in the last general elections in 2019, the constituents of the Congress-led Indian National Democratic Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) had won 45 of the seats, while 42 went to the BJP.
BJP's Tamil Nadu challenge
This time, the BJP would be looking to breach the state of Tamil Nadu, where all the 39 seats will go to polls in the first phase, from where it has returned empty-handed despite Modi’s repeated visits to the state.
The BJP is heavily banking on the state unit president K Annamalai to win the Coimbatore seat where he is facing the DMK’s Ganapathi P Rajkumar. In 2019, the seat went to DMK’s ally in the state, CPM.
In Tamil Nadu, the DMK is contesting in 22 seats leaving the rest for its allies including the Congress and the Left.
The Congress fight
The Congress is fighting to retain the seats of Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh and Sivaganga in Tamil Nadu. Nakul Nath, son of former chief minister Kamal Nath and Karti Chidambaram, whose father P Chidambaram had won the seat seven times are the sitting MPs from the two seats.
The former Telangana governor Tamilsai Soundararajan has returned to electoral politics from the Chennai South Lok Sabha constituency. She had lost to DMK’s Kanimozhi Karunanidhi in 2019 from Thoothukudi. Kanimozhi is seeking another term from the same seat.
All eyes on Gaurav Gogoi
In Assam, Gaurav Gogoi, the Congress’ deputy leader in Lok Sabha and son of former chief minister Tarun Gogoi, has to move to Jorhat against the incumbent BJP MP Topon Kumar Gogoi. In 2014 and 2019, Gaurav Gogoi had braved the saffron surge in the state and won the Kaliabor seat, which ceased to exist following a delimitation exercise.
In the western state of Rajasthan, where the BJP had swept all the 25 seats in the two previous elections, trouble with the Rajput community has put the ruling BJP on the tenterhooks. All eyes are on the seat of Churu, among the 12 of the 25 seats that go to polls on Friday, where the two-time sitting MP Rahul Kaswan on being denied the ticket by the BJP has moved to the Congress and is fighting to win his seat back on the “hand” symbol. The BJP has given the ticket to javelin thrower and two-time Paralympic gold medal winner Devendra Jhajharia.
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