19 April,2024 07:46 AM IST | Delhi | mid-day online correspondent
PM Narendra Modi/ AFP
Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged eligible voters in India to vote in record numbers on Friday, as the seven-phase Lok Sabha Elections 2024 began. Polling is currently underway in 102 seats. PM Modi encouraged young and first-time voters to vote in significant numbers.
Taking to social media platform X (formerly Twitter), he wrote, "The Lok Sabha Elections 2024 commence today! As 102 seats across 21 States and UTs go to the polls, I urge all those voting in these seats to exercise their franchise in record numbers. I particularly call upon the young and first-time voters to vote in large numbers. After all, every vote counts and every voice matters!"
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He made similar appeals in various other Indian languages including Marathi.
The Lok Sabha Elections 2024 will be carried out in seven phases from April 19 to June 1; per an agency report, this is going to be the second-longest polling exercise in electoral history. The first general election was held over five months between September 1951 and February 1952.
According to the report in ANI, the Lok Sabha Elections 2019 were also held in seven phases.
In elections that began on Friday, people will be casting their votes in a total of 102 constituencies across 21 states and Union Territories while the counting is scheduled to take place on June 4.
Voting for Lok Sabha Elections 2024 Phase 1 is underway in the following states and union territories: Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhatisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Jammu and Kashmir, Lakshadweep, and Puducherry.
Reportedly, the voting in Bihar, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh will be taking place in all seven phases while states like Tamil Nadu, Nagaland, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and union territories like Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar Island and Lakshadweep will be taking place in single-phase on Friday, the ANI report stated.
Apart from the general elections, voters in Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim in the northeast will be casting their ballots for their assembly elections as well.
The ANI report also stated that from a total of 96.8 crore registered voters, 49.72 crore are men and 47.1 are women.
