Filing of nominations for the first phase of the Lok Sabha polls began on Wednesday kicking off the mammoth process for the general election set to be held from April 19 to June 1.
The filing of nomination began with the Election Commission (EC) issuing a notification on behalf of the President for the first phase.
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The States that will be voting in Phase 1 are Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Jammu and Kashmir, Lakshadweep and Puducherry.
A total of 102 parliamentary constituencies in 21 States and Union Territories (UTs) will go to the polls in the first phase on April 19. The last date of nominations in Phase 1 for all 20 States and UTs other than Bihar is March 27. For Bihar, it is March 28 due to a festival.
Nomination papers will be scrutinised on March 28. For Bihar, the process would be done on March 30. The last date for withdrawal of candidature is March 20 while for Bihar, it is April 2.
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The polls to elect the 18th Lok Sabha would be held in seven phases beginning April 19 followed by subsequent phases on April 26, May 7, May 13, May 20, May 25 and June 1. The counting of votes is on June 4. The term of the 17th Lok Sabha ends on June 16.
The elections, which are considered to be heavily stacked in favour of the ruling NDA led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the Opposition INDIA bloc struggling to keep its flock together, would be the second longest cycle in India’s electoral history. The longest election period was that of the first-ever general elections that were held spanning five months from September 1951 to February 1952.
