India's Lok Sabha elections begin tomorrow

The Lok Sabha elections in India, the world's largest democratic country, begin tomorrow (April 19).  This is the 18th Lok Sabha election in the history of the country. There will be seven phases of voting in this election.

On Friday (April 19), the first phase of polling will be held in 102 constituencies across 17 states and four Union Territories. West Bengal is one of the three states where polls are being held in seven phases. Apart from this, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar will also vote in seven phases, reports NDTV and Al Jazeera.

In the first phase, polling will be held in the three constituencies of Coochbehar, Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar in the northern region of West Bengal. Polling will be held in all 39 constituencies of South India's Tamil Nadu in the first phase. In Rajasthan, 12 out of 25 constituencies will go to polls on Friday.

Eight of Uttar Pradesh's 80 constituencies will go to polls on Friday when voting will be held in nearly every state in eastern India. The eastern Indian states include Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura and West Bengal. The Election Commission has decided to hold polls in conflict-torn Manipur of Northeast India in two phases. Polling will be held in 15 assembly constituencies of Churachandpur and Chandel districts of Outer Manipur on Friday. The second phase of voting in the remaining 13 constituencies will be held on April 26.

Assam's five constituencies Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Kaziranga, Lakhimpur and Sanitpur will go to polls tomorrow. Apart from this, four constituencies in Bihar in eastern India, the Bastar constituency in the Maoist-dominated area of Chhattisgarh, at least two other Maoist-dominated areas of Chandrapur and Gadchiroli in adjoining Maharashtra, Bhandara, Ramtek and Nagpur of Maharashtra will vote tomorrow.

BJP is moving forward with a target of 370 seats, out of 543, in the Lok Sabha. And the NDA coalition is targeting 400 seats. In the last Lok Sabha polls, the BJP-NDA alliance won 303 seats against their target of 300 seats. The alliance wants to get 100 more seats than in 2019. The biggest challenge to the BJP-NDA alliance in this election is the Congress-led opposition alliance of 24 parties - INDIA.

However, opinion polls suggest that the BJP and its allies will win the elections for the third time. ABP News has predicted the victory of the BJP-led NDA alliance in at least 373 seats in the public opinion poll. And in West Bengal, the Trinamool Congress will win 21 out of 42 seats, according to the TV9 opinion poll.

Voting will be held on seven dates across India. The first phase of voting begins on April 19. Later, polls will be held on April 26, May 7, May 13, May 20, May 25, and June 1. The results will be declared on June 4.