Lok Sabha elections 2024: Major battles to watch out for in Phase 1

The first phase of Lok Sabha elections will commence on Friday (19 April), with polling in 102 constituencies spread across 21 states and Union Territories. India is holding general elections in seven phases that will last till 1 June.

Voting will be held in all 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu, 12 in Rajasthan, eight in Uttar Pradesh, six in Madhya Pradesh, five each in Uttarakhand, Assam and Maharashtra, four in Bihar, three in West Bengal, two each in Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya and one each in Chhattisgarh, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Jammu and Kashmir, Lakshadweep and Puducherry.

Several bigwigs will be testing their fortunes in the first phase of Lok Sabha polls. From Maharashtra’s Nagpur to Assam’s Jorhat, here are the key battles that you must watch out for.

Maharashtra’s Nagpur

Union minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari is again contesting from the Nagpur Lok Sabha seat. He has been winning the constituency for the last two general elections on a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ticket.

Once a stronghold of Congress’ Vilas Muttemwar, Gadkari defeated him in the 2014 elections by a wide margin. The senior BJP leader bagged the seat in 2019, beating the Congress candidate Nana Patole.

This time, Gadkari is facing Congress’ sitting Nagpur West MLA Vikas Thakre.

Uttar Pradesh’s Nagina

Nagina, a seat reserved for Scheduled Caste candidates, will witness a four-cornered contest.

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Chandrashekhar Azad, national president of the Azad Samaj Party (Kanshiram), is contesting from the Nagina Lok Sabha constituency. Azad, a well-known Dalit leader, is hoping to convert his popularity into votes. He has the support of Rashtriya Shoshit Samaj Party president Swami Prasad Maurya, reported India Today.

Manoj Kumar from the Samajwadi Party (SP), Surender Pal Singh from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the BJP’s Om Kumar are also in the fray from the seat.

As per India Today, the Nagina Lok Sabha seat has not been retained by any political party since the 2009 polls.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BSP candidate Girish Chandra was victorious from the seat by a margin of 166,832 votes against BJP’s Dr Yashwant Singh.

Arunachal Pradesh’s Arunachal West

Arunachal Pradesh is holding simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly elections on 19 April.

Arunachal Pradesh is holding simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly elections on 19 April.

Union minister of Earth and Sciences Kiren Rijiju is fighting from the Arunachal West Lok Sabha seat. Nabam Tuki, former state chief minister, is the Congress’ candidate for the seat. Ruhi Tangung of Janata Dal (United) is also in the race.

Rijiju had defeated Tuki, who is the current president of Arunachal Pradesh Congress, in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. In 2014, Congress’ Takam Sanjoy lost the seat to BJP’s Rijiju.

Madhya Pradesh’s Chhindwara

Congress’ Nakul Nath is seeking re-election from Chhindwara Lok Sabha seat. The son of former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath had won the seat in the 2019 elections by defeating BJP’s Nathansaha Kawreti.

Chhindwara was the lone Lok Sabha seat won by the Congress in Madhya Pradesh. The remaining 28 constituencies were swept by the saffron party.

Chhindwara is the stronghold of Kamal Nath who has been triumphant from the seat nine times since 1980.

Tamil Nadu’s Thoothukudi

DMK’s sitting MP Kanimozhi from Thoothukudi is seeking re-election. Nainar Nagendran of the BJP is challenging her from the constituency.

Kanimozhi, the daughter of former Tamil Nadu CM M Karunanidhi, had won her maiden Lok Sabha polls from Thoothukudi in 2019, defeating BJP’s Tamilisai Soundararajan by a margin of margin of 3,47,200 votes.

Uttar Pradesh’s Pilibhit

Pilibhit in western Uttar Pradesh has been a bastion of the “other” Gandhi family for decades. Maneka Gandhi’s family has kept a strong grip on the constituency since 1989.

Her son, Varun, won the seat for the BJP in the 2019 elections by a margin of nearly 2.5 lakh votes. However, this time, the saffron party has replaced the three-time Pilibhit MP and fielded Uttar Pradesh PWD minister Jitin Prasada from the constituency.

He is up against SP’s Bhagwat Saran Gangwar, who is the Opposition INDIA bloc’s candidate. BSP’s Anis Ahmed Khan is also contesting from Pilibhit.

Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore

Coimbatore is one of the most interesting contests in these Lok Sabha polls. Traditionally, it has been a stronghold seat of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and its main rival the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK).

The Lok Sabha seat was won by PR Natarajan of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), a member of the DMK-led alliance, in the 2019 polls.

However, he is not in the race this time. Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai is making his Lok Sabha debut from Coimbatore. He is up against DMK candidate Ganapathy P Rajkumar and AIADMK’s Singai Ramachandran.

Assam’s Jorhat

It is Gogoi vs Gogoi in Assam’s Jorhat Lok Sabha constituency. Congress’ star candidate Gaurav Gogoi is competing against the sitting BJP MP, Topon Kumar Gogoi.

Gaurav, the son of former chief minister Tarun Gogoi, has won the Lok Sabha polls twice since 2014 from the Kaliabor constituency. However, following the delimitation exercise in 2019, he shifted to the neighbouring Jorhat constituency, noted Indian Express.

Rajasthan’s Bikaner

The BJP triumphed from the Bikaner Lok Sabha seat four consecutive times from 2004 to 2019, as per Indian Express.

Union minister Arjun Ram Meghwal, who has been winning the seat since 2009, is trying his luck again on a BJP ticket. The Congress has again pitted Govind Ram Meghwal against the sitting Bikaner MP.

Other seats

Tamilisai Soundararajan, who lost to DMK’s Kanimozhi in 2019 from Thoothukudi, is the BJP’s candidate from Chennai South Lok Sabha constituency in Tamil Nadu. She will be squaring off with DMK’s sitting MP Tamizhachi Thangapandian and AIADMK’s J Jayavardhan from the constituency.

It is a triangular contest in Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur. The BJP’s Raghav Lakhanpal is contesting against the BSP candidate Majid Ali and Imran Masood of the Congress.

Sivaganga MP K Chidambaram is expecting to win again from the Lok Sabha constituency in Tamil Nadu. He will compete with BJP’s T Devanathan Yadav and the AIADMK’s Xavier Dass.

Union Minister of State for Science and Technology Dr Jitendra Singh is aiming to get elected from the Udhampur Lok Sabha constituency of Jammu and Kashmir again. He is fighting against Congress leader Chaudhary Lal Singh.

With inputs from agencies