8:40 am: Voting Underway In Coochbehar
Voting is underway in Coochbehar in the first phase of the India general elections 2019.
This seat is supposed to be a big fight between the TMC and the BJP. The TMC candidate Paresh Chandra Adhikary is a former Forward Bloc member while BJP’s Nitish Pramanik is a turncoat from TMC’s youth wing.
8:35 am: Voters lined up in West Bengal’s Alipurduar
8:30 am Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu casts vote in Amaravati
8:00 am: Flower Petals Welcome Voters In Uttar Pradesh’s Baghpat
Flower petals were showered at voters to welcome them in Uttar Pradesh’s Baghpat. Eight constituencies in the state are voting in phase 1.
In 2014 the BJP had won all the seats — Saharanpur, Kairana, Muzaffarnagar, Bijnor, Meerut, Baghpat, Ghaziabad, Gautam Buddha Nagar.
7:35 am: Google Uses Doodle To Tell Indians How To Vote
Google had a special doodle for India on the first day of polling in the Lok Sabha elections 2019. It leads to a list of FAQs that answer questions of voters. It also tells you how to find your booth, candidates and all the election dates for the seven phases of polling.
7:30 am: Modi Urges Voters To Turn Out In ‘Record Numbers’
Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter to reach out to voters early in the morning urning them to “turn out in record numbers”.
7:20 am: RSS Chief Mohah Bhagwat Casts His Vote
Rashtriya Swaywamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat cast his vote in Nagpur on Thursday. Nagpur is known to be a RSS stronghold where Union Minister Nitin Gadkari is taking on Congress’s Nana Patole. He told ANI, “Voting is our duty, everyone should vote.”
Here are some visuals from Nagpur from NDTV
7:15 am Polling Begins Across 91 Constituencies
Casting of votes have already begun in the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections today.
People will be voting in Lok Sabha constituencies of Andhra Pradesh (25), Telangana (17), Uttarakhand (5), Meghalaya (2) and Arunachal Pradesh (2) besides lone seats in Mizoram, Tripura, Manipur, Nagaland, Sikkim, Andaman and Nicobar, and Lakshadweep is being held.
6:15 am: Heavy Security In Bastar, Mock Voting In Nagpur
While people will begin lining up to cast their votes only at 7 am, polling offcials and security personnel have been working round the clock.
In Maharashtra’s key constituency Nagpur where BJP’s Nitin Gadkari is in fray, polling officials were seen conducting mock voting:
The Bastar District Magistrate said that 75,000 security personnel have been put into action to ensure safe polling. This is after a Maoist attack killed a BJP MLA in Dantewada on Tuesday.
6:00 am: 91 Constituencies To Vote Today, Polling Starts At 7 am
Lok Sabha elections 2019, the 17th Indian general election, is set to begin with 91 constituencies across 18 states and two Union Territories
In the high-stakes Lok Sabha polls that will be held in seven phases for 543 seats, BJP’s Narendra Modi is looking to make a comeback as prime minister for a second term, while the Congress is is doing its best to thwart him. The Congress won an all-time low of just 44 seats in the 2014 election, while the BJP got a clear majority with 272 seats. The seven phases of voting will be held across India on 11 April, 18 April, 23 April, 29 April, 6 May, 12 May and 19 May. Votes will be counted on 23 May.
The Election Commission has said that voting will take place between 7 am and 6 pm in Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, West Bengal, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep. In Uttarakhand, polling will be carried out from 7 am-5 pm in the first phase of polls.
The EC also said voting will take place between 7 am and 5 pm in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Sikkim and Tripura West. Outer Manipur, Nagaland and Meghalaya will go to polls between 7 am and 4 pm.
Several important constituencies go to polls on Thursday including Jamui in Bihar, Nagpur in Maharashtra, Bastar in Chhattisgarh.
In Uttar Pradesh, the BJP will contest against the newly-formed SP-BSP-RLD alliance in the eight constituencies that go to poll.
In 2014, the BJP had won all these seats—Saharanpur, Kairana, Muzaffarnagar, Bijnor, Meerut, Baghpat, Ghaziabad and Gautam Budh Nagar. But in a by-election last year, it lost the Kairana seat.
In Bihar, Chirag Paswan, “star” candidate of LJP and MP, will take on RLSP’s Bhudeo Chaudhary in Jamui.
In Gaya, former chief minister and Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) president Jitan Ram Manjhi, a several-term MLA, is the Mahagatbandhan’s candidate.
In Maharashtra’s Nagpur, Union minister and senior BJP leader Nitin Gadkari and Congress’s Nana Patole, who quit the saffron party in 2017, are pitted against each other. Political observers have said Dalit and Muslim voters are likely to play a crucial role in Nagpur, the headquarters of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
Polling in the Naxal-hit Gadchiroli-Chimur seat will be held from 7 am to 3 pm.
In Jammu and Kashmir only two constituencies — Baramulla and Jammu — will go to polls. Separatists have called for a “complete shutdown” on Thursday and have asked people to not vote. They said the strike is also to protest against the closure of Kashmir’s main highway for civilians for two days in a week and the recent attack by the police and the security forces on inmates at Central Jail in Srinagar.
The Chief Election officer of Chhattisgarh said on Wednesday that polling in Bastar will be carried out as per schedule. His announcement came a day after Maoists killed a BJP MLA in Dantewada, which falls in the Bastar Lok Sabha constituency, which will go to polls in the first phase on Thursday.
The run-up to the elections saw a high-pitched campaign where the BJP has moved away from its development plank to capitalise on the Balakot air strikes from February. The Congress campaign, meanwhile, is centred on the promises that the BJP did not fulfil, especially its performance on jobs.
While the BJP looked like it could be in trouble at the end of last year, when the Congress wrested back power in the three key states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, Modi and his party have managed to claw back some support after the Pulwama attack which killed more than jawans.
Pollster have predicted that the Balakot airstrikes will help Modi and BJP in the Lok Sabha polls.
Meanwhile, a recent survey has shown that while the BJP might not get as many seats as they got in 2014, they will emerge as the majority.