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The 18th Lok Sabha elections are starting in India, the largest democratic country in the world. A total of seven phases of polling will be held in 543 Lok Sabha constituencies starting on Friday (April 19). And the result will be officially announced on June 4. However, not all states are voting in seven phases. A total of 7 phases of voting will be held in three states. The states are West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
Out of 28 states and 8 Union Territories of the entire country, voting will be held in 102 constituencies of 21 States (17 States and 4 Union Territories) in the first phase on Friday (April 19). Simultaneously, voting will be held in 60 Assembly seats of Arunachal Pradesh and 32 seats of Sikkim on Friday.
Voting will be held in three constituencies of West Bengal in the Lok Sabha elections on Friday. These constituencies are Cochbehar, Alipurduar and Jalpaiguri. The commission said that polling will start from 7 am in Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar. It will end at 6 pm.
According to several Indian media including Times of India, about 97 crore voters will vote in the Lok Sabha elections. The main battle in this year's Lok Sabha elections is between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led coalition of India's centre-right and right-wing political parties – the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the Indian National Development Inclusive Alliance or 'India' alliance led by the Indian National Congress.
Bharatiya Janata Party, the main party of the ruling NDA alliance, is moving ahead with the target of 370 seats. However, their target for alliance is 400 seats. Last time the BJP-NDA alliance won 303 seats, against the target of 300 seats. That is, the alliance wants to get 100 more seats than in 2019.
India's Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar announced the Lok Sabha election schedule at a press conference in Delhi on March 16. According to the schedule, the first phase of polling will be held on April 19, followed by April 26, May 7, May 13, May 20, May 25 and June 1 for the final 7th phase.
This time 96 crore 90 lakh voters will get an opportunity to exercise their right to vote. Votes will be taken through 55 lakh Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) in a total of 10 lakh polling stations. The results of the polls will be announced on June 4. A few states with fewer Lok Sabha seats will vote in just one day. But in states where there are more seats, polling will be held in several phases.
There are a total of 2,600 registered political parties in India. The participating parties have their own symbols. The ruling BJP's symbol is the lotus, the main opposition Congress's hand, and other parties' symbols range from elephants to bicycles, grasses, combs or arrows.
Who are contesting on Friday in three West Bengal seats:
Jagadish Chandra Varma Basunia of Trinamool, BJP's Nishith Pramanik, Congress's Piya Roy Chowdhury and Left Front's Nitish Chandra Roy of Sharik Forward Bloc are fighting for Trinamool in Cooch Behar. There are also other smaller parties and independent candidates. But the main fight is lotus versus grass.
Nirmal Chandra Roy, BJP's Jayant Kumar Roy, Left Front CPM candidate Debraj Burman are fighting for Jalpaiguri constituency. There are other parties and independent candidates. On the other hand, Trinamool's Prakash Chik Baraik, BJP's Manoj Tigga, and Left Front's Mili are also contesting for the Alipurdua seat.
BJP candidates won in these three seats in 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Nishith Pramanik in Cooch Behar, Jayant Roy in Jalpaiguri and John Barla in Alipurduar. This time too, BJP is hopeful of winning these three seats in the first phase. ABP Anand and C-Voter opinion polls also say so. The survey indicates that the BJP is going to win all the three seats in the first phase. Although the Trinamool has said, the people of this state are still in favor of Mamata Banerjee's development. This time they will strengthen the hands of the India alliance by defeating the bigoted BJP in these three seats.
Note that in the last Lok Sabha elections of 2019, out of 42 seats in this state, Trinamool won 22 seats, BJP 18 seats and Congress 2 seats. Left Front was empty.
Bangladesh /SS
