Lok Sabha Phase 1 Voting: The Lok Sabha elections are set to begin with 102 seats across 21 states and Union Territories, slated to go to polls on Friday (April 19). Election campaigning ended for the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections at 3 pm in the Northeast and at 6 pm in the other parts of the country.
The political temperature shot up on the last day of campaigning as Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Home Minister Amit Shah, and Mamata Banerjee addressed parallel rallies.
With just a day left for the first phase of polling, have a look at the key faces in the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA and the opposition's I.N.D.I.A. bloc.
1) K Annamalai: A high-voltage contest is on the cards on the Coimbatore Lok Sabha seat, which is set to witness a battle between Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai, who will be facing DMK leader Ganapathy P Rajkumar, and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, AIADMK's Singai Ramachandran. Annamalai faces strong competition from parties like DMK and AIADMK, which are significant in Tamil Nadu with their dedicated followers.
2) Nitin Gadkari: Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari is seeking a third straight victory from Maharashtra's Nagpur seat. The seat is set to witness the contest between Gadkari and Congress candidate Vikas Thakre, who is currently the Nagpur West MLA. Nitin Gadkari has been a prominent face in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's cabinet, and he has been the Minister of Road Transport and Highways in both terms.
In the 2019 polls, Gadkari registered victory with a massive vote share of 55.7 percent. He defeated the current Maharashtra Congress President, Nana Patole.
3) Jitin Prasada: Jitin Prasada is another big face of the BJP who is in the fray in the first phase of voting. He quit Congress in 2021. Prasada replaced the two-time MP from Uttar Pradesh's Pilibhit, Varun Gandhi. The Samajwadi Party has fielded Bhagwant Saran Gangwar, and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has fielded Anees Ahmes Khan against Prasada.
In the 2019 elections, Varun Gandhi emerged victorious in Pilibhit. He secured a notable mandate with 704,549 votes, with 59.4 percent of the vote.
4) Jitan Ram Manjhi: Former Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi is set to contest the Gaya seat in Bihar. This Lok Sabha election is significant for the 79-year-old Manjhi. Gaya has 14 candidates contesting the polls. In the 2024 election, the BJP has left the Gaya (reserved) seat for its ally, the Hindustani Awam Morcha-Secular (HAM-S). Jitan Ram Manjhi and former minister and RJD candidate Kumar Sarvjeet are in the electoral fray.
The seat was earlier represented in parliament by Vijay Kumar, alias Vijay Manjhi of JD (U). Manjhi's HAM was part of a grand alliance in the last election.
5) Nakul Nath: The first phase of polling will also see Nakul Nath, son of former Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath, contesting again from the Chhindwara seat against BJP candidate Vivek Bunty Sahu, who had lost to Kamal Nath in the last two assembly polls. The saffron party already showed in the recently conducted assembly polls that it has an upper advantage in the Hindi heartland states.
In the 2019 elections, Congress leader Nakul Nath got a total of 47.1 percent of the vote, whereas the defeated BJP candidate touched 44.1 percent. Madhya Pradesh has a total of 29 Lok Sabha seats.
6) Gaurav Gogoi: The first phase of polling will also decide the fate of Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi who will be fighting the election from the Jorhat seat in Assam. Gogoi is Congress' deputy leader in Lok Sabha. Notably, the Jorhart seat has been seen as a stronghold of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
7) Imran Masood: The Congress and SP have forged an alliance in Uttar Pradesh for the Lok Sabha elections. The alliance has fielded Imran Masood from UP’s Saharanpur. It is one of the most crucial seats in Western UP. Saharanpur is set to witness a triangular contest between Imran Masood, Raghav Lakhanpal Sharma of the BJP, and Majid Ali of the Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP). Masood is the nephew of nine-term MP (five-term member of the Lok Sabha and four-term member of the Rajya Sabha) Rashid Masood.
8) Karti Chidambaram: Congress leader and Sivaganga MP Karti Chidambaram is seeking a re-election from a seat his father and former Union Minister P. Chidambaram won seven times, competing against BJP's T Devanathan Yadav and AIADMK's Xavier Dass.
9) Tamilisai Soundararajan: Tamilisai Soundararajan recently resigned as Telangana Governor and Lt Governor of Puducherry to make a return to active politics. She is the BJP's candidate for the Chennai South Lok Sabha seat. Tamilisai is the daughter of Kumari Ananthan, who was a veteran Congress leader.
10) Dayanidhi Maran: A fierce battle is likely on Tamil Nadu's Chennai Central Lok Sabha seat between the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the BJP. The DMK has fielded incumbent MP Dayanidhi Maran, who is fighting to retain the seat, while the saffron party has fielded Vinoj P. Selvam.