Phase-I notified, all Tamil Nadu seats up for grabs

Animesh Singh

New Delhi, March 20

The Election Commission (EC) on Wednesday issued a notification for the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections across 21 states on April 19. The phase will see contest on all 39 seats of Tamil Nadu, which has been at the centre of the ruling BJP’s attention with Prime Minister Narendra Modi holding a series of rallies in the last few days.

Some other key seats which will see voting in the first phase include Kairana, Muzaffarnagar and Saharanpur in the politically significant sugarcane belt of western Uttar Pradesh, as well as Nagpur in Maharashtra, along with some seats located in tribal belts such as Gadchiroli and Chandrapur (both in Maharashtra), and Balaghat (Madhya Pradesh). Uttarakhand’s all five seats will also see polling in the first phase.

Polling on April 19

Last date for nominations: March 27

Scrutiny of nominations: March 28

Last date for withdrawal of papers: March 30

During the phase, 102 seats — the highest among the total seven phases of the elections — will vote. While the ruling DMK is comfortably placed in Tamil Nadu along with its ally Congress, the BJP and the Samajwadi Party will be locked in tough contests for the seats in western Uttar Pradesh, especially with Jayant Chaudhary’s RLD, a key player in the region, having joined the NDA.

Some other important states which will witness polling include Bihar (four seats), Rajasthan (12 seats), UP (eight seats), Maharashtra (five seats), Madhya Pradesh (six seats), J&K (Udhampur seat), Manipur (two seats), Chhattisgarh (Bastar seat) and West Bengal (three seats). In Bihar, polling will be held for Jamui, from where LJP leader and former Union minister Ramvilas Paswan’s son Chirag Paswan is the sitting MP.