Lok Sabha elections | All you need to know: 91 seats in 20 states goes to polls in first phase

What is being called the great “festival of democracy” - the Lok Sabha elections - began on Thursday with 91 seats across 20 states going to vote in the first of the seven phase elections to elect the 17th Lok Sabha.

While many states will witness elections in multiple phases, states such as Arunachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim, and Odisha will witness elections in single phases. Over the seven phases, the elections will cover 543 constituencies. The results, or counting of votes, will take place on May 23.

The main parties that are contesting the Lok Sabha polls are the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress. Leaders from the two parties have been criss-crossing the country almost every day in and holding three to four rallies in different locations in a bid to garner as many votes as possible for their parties. Among the top speakers at the various political rallies have been Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress president Rahul Gandhi, BJP chief Amit Shah, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath.

Explained: Key seats which may signal outcome of Phase 1 of 2019 LS polls

In Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state which sends 80 members to the Lok Sabha, Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party and the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) have joined hands with Ajit Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), to fight the BJP together in the state.

Opposition parties have come together to form alliances in different states as well to put up a stiff fight against the Bharatiya Janata Party, the ruling party, which had achieved an absolute majority with 282 seats in its kitty out of 543 in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The Congress had been left far behind with just 44 seats.

This time around, the BJP is banking on the work it has done in the past five years, while the Congress is contesting the elections on the poll planks of jobs, minimum income guarantee and has been raising the issues of the Rafale deal, farmer suicides among others.

Voting for the first phase of elections began at 7 am in most of the constituencies.

The 20 states that are voting in the first phase of elections are: Andhra Pradesh (25 seats), Arunachal Pradesh (2 ), Assam (5), Bihar (4), Chhattisgarh (1), Jammu and Kashmir (2), Maharashtra (7), Manipur (1), Meghalaya (2), Mizoram (1), Nagaland (1), Odisha (4), Sikkim (1), Telangana (17), Tripura (1), Uttar Pradesh (8), Uttarakhand (5), West Bengal (2), Andaman (1) and Lakshadweep (1).

The constituencies that will go to vote across the 20 states are:

 

Constituency	Sitting MP
Andaman and Nicobar Islands
Andaman and Nicobar Islands	Bishnu Pada Ray, BJP
Andhra Pradesh
Araku	Kothapalli Geetha, YSRC
Srikakulam	Rammohan Naidu Kinjarapu, TDP
Vizianagaram	Pusapati Ashok Gajapati Raju, TDP
Visakhapatnam	Kambhampati Hari Babu, BJP
Anakapalli	Muttamsetti Srinivasa Rao, TDP (Now with YSRCP)
Kakinada	Thota Narasimham, TDP
Amalapuram	Pandula Ravindra Babu, TDP (Joined YSRCP in Feb 2019)
Rajahmundry	Murali Mohan, TDP
Narasapuram	Gokaraju Gangaraju, BJP
Eluru	Maganti Venkateswara Rao, TDP
Machilipatnam	Konakalla Narayana Rao, TDP
Vijayawada	Kesineni Srinivas, TDP
Guntur	Jayadev Galla, TDP
Narasaraopet	Rayapati Sambasiva Rao, TDP
Bapatla	Maluadri Sriram, TDP
Ongole	YV Subba Reddy, YSRCP
Nandyal	S P Y Reddy, YSRCP
Kurnool	Butta Renuka, YSRCP
Anantapur	JC Diwakar Reddy, TDP
Hindupur	Kristappa Nimmala, TDP
Kadapa	Avinash Reddy, YSRCP
Nellore	Mekapati Rajamohan Reddy, YSRCP
Tirupati	Varaprasad Rao Velagapalli, YSRCP
Rajampet	PV Midhun Reddy, YSRCP
Chittoor	Naramalli Sivaprasad, TDP
Arunachal Pradesh
Arunachal Pradesh West	Kiren Rijiju, BJP
Arunachal Pradesh East	Ninong Ering, Congress
Assam
Tezpur	Ram Prasad Sarmah, BJP
Kaliabor	Gaurav Gogoi, Congress
Jorhat	Kamakhya Prasad Tasa, BJP
Dibrugarh	Rameswar Teli, BJP
Lakhimpur	Pradan Baruah, BJP
Bihar
Aurangabad	Sushil Kumar Singh, BJP
Gaya	Hari Manjhi, BJP
Nawada	Giriraj Singh, BJP
Jamui	Chirag Paswan, LJP
Chhattisgarh
Bastar	Dinesh Kashyap, BJP
Jammu and Kashmir
Baramulla	Muzaffar Hussain Baig, PDP
Jammu	Jugal Kishore, BJP
Lakshadweep
Lakshadweep	Mohammed Faizal PP, NCP
Maharashtra
Wardha	Ramdas Chandrabhanji Tadas, BJP
Ramtek	Krupal Balaji Tumane, Shiv Sena
Nagpur	Nitin Gadkar, BJP
Bhandara-Gondiya	Madhukarrao Yashwantrao Kukde, NCP
Gadchiroli-Chimur	Ashok Nete, BJP
Chandrapur	Ahir Hansraj Gangaram, BJP
Yavatmal-Washim	Gawali Bhavana Pundlikrao, Shiv Sena

Constituency	Sitting MP
Manipur
Outer Manipur	Thangso Baite, Congress
Meghalaya
Shillong	Vincent H Pala, Congress
Tura	Vacant, After Congrad Sangma became chief minister
Mizoram
Mizoram	CL Ruala, Congress
Nagaland
Nagaland	Tokheho Yepthomi, NDPP
Odisha
Kalahandi	Arka Keshari Deo, BJD
Nabarangpur	Balabhadra Majhi, BJD
Berhampur	Sidhant Mohapatra, BJP
Koraput	Jhina Hikaka, BJD
Sikkim
Sikkim	Prem Nath Rai, SDF
Telangana
Adilabad	Godam Nagesh, TRS
Peddapalli	Balka Suman, TRS
Karimnagar	Vinod Kumar Boinapally, TRS
Nizamabad	Kalvakuntla Kavitha, TRS
Zahirabad	B.B. Patil, TRS
Medak	Kalvakuntla Chandrasekhar Rao, TRS
Malkajgiri	Ch.Malla Reddy, TDP
Secunderabad	Bandaru Dattatreya, BJP
Hyderabad	Asaduddin Owaisi, AIMIM
Chevella	Konda Vishweshwar Reddy, TRS (resigned in 2018)
Mahbubnagar	AP Jithender Reddy, TRS
Nagarkurnool	Yellaiah Nandi, Congress
Nalgonda	Gutha Sukhender Reddy, Congress
Bhongir	Dr. Boora Narsaiah Goud, TRS
Warangal	Kadiyam Srihari, TRS
Mahabubabad	Prof. Azmeera Seetaram Naik, TRS
Khammam	Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy, YSRCP
Tripura
Tripura West	Sankar Prasad Datt, CPI(M)
Uttar Pradesh
Saharanpur	Raghav Lakhanpal, BJP
Kairana	Tabassum Hasan, RLD
Muzaffarnagar	Sanjeev Kumar Balyan, BJP
Bijnor	Kunwar Bharatendra Singh, BJP
Meerut	Rajendra Agrawal, BJP
Baghpat	Satya Pal Singh, BJP
Ghaziabad	VK Singh, BJP
GautamBuddhaNagar	Mahesh Sharma, BJP
Uttarakhand
Tehri Garhwal	Mala Rajya Laxmi Shah, BJP
Garhwal	Maj Gen (Retd) Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri (AVSM), BJP
Almora	Ajay Tamta, BJP
Nainital-Udhamsingh Nagar	Bhagat Singh Koshiyari, BJP
Haridwar	Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, BJP
West Bengal
Cooch Behar	Partha Pratim Ray, Trinamool Congress
Alipurduar	Dasrath Tirkey, Trinamool Congress