After a high-decibel election campaign and prominent leaders travelling extra miles for election rallies, polling is set to be held today at 91 parliamentary constituencies of the country.
The 91 constituencies are spread across different states and union territories and the polling will begin at 7 AM in most of these constituencies, barring a few which require special security measures.
The first phase of the election will be taking place in 18 states and two union territories. It will cover all parliamentary constituencies of 10 states and union territories namely Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Andaman and Nicobar, and Lakshadweep, Telangana and Uttarakhand.
The polling will also take place in eight constituencies of Uttar Pradesh and four parliamentary constituencies of Bihar, which comprise 80 and 40 parliamentary constituencies, respectively.
Two parliamentary constituencies of West Bengal- Cooch Behar and Alipurduar - will go to polls in the first phase.
In Jammu and Kashmir, the polling will take place for Jammu and Baramulla Lok Sabha constituencies.
Other than these a number of parliamentary constituencies in Assam, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Odisha, and Tripura will also vote in the first phase.
In addition to the Lok Sabha polling, there will be Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim, and Arunachal Pradesh, as well as 28 out of 147 assembly seats in Odisha.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has appealed to the people to vote in large numbers to strengthen democracy.
"On Thursday will be first of the seven-phase elections for the 17th Lok Sabha. Approximately 90 crore voters will exercise their franchise. We appeal to the people of India to vote fearlessly so that foundations of our democracy get stronger," Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora had told ANI on Wednesday.
Elaborate security arrangements have been put in place for the Lok Sabha elections and tight vigil is being maintained at interstate borders.
Beginning today, the Lok Sabha polls will be conducted in seven phases till May 19. The results will be announced on May 23.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)