NEW DELHI: Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, along with Election Commissioners Gyanesh Kumar and Dr Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, on Saturday said that Lok Sabha elections in the BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh would be held on June 1 in the 7th phase of the elections.
With the formal announcement of the 2024 Lok Sabha election schedule, the Model Code of Conduct has also come into effect across the country. It may be noted that the tenure of the present Lok Sabha ends on June 16 and a new House will have to be constituted before that. In 2019, the general elections were held over seven phases from April 11 to May 19, with results declared four days later. The BJP-led National Democratic (NDA) won a total of 303 seats, leaving the grand-old party behind at 52 seats, in the 2019 general elections.
Total 96.8 Crore Voters Eligible To Cast Votes: CEC
A total of 96.8 crore voters will be eligible to cast their vote in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar said on Saturday. Addressing a press conference here to announce the dates of Lok Sabha elections and assembly polls to four states, Rajiv Kumar said there will be 10.5 lakh polling stations and 1.5 crore polling officials and security staff will be deployed to conduct the elections in the world’s largest democracy.
“We are committed to giving the nation a truly festive, democratic environment. The term of the 17th Lok Sabha is due to expire on 16th June 2024. The terms of the Legislative Assemblies of Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim are also due to expire in June 2024. Elections are due in Jammu and Kashmir,” he said.
Kumar said approximately 49.7 crore voters are male and 47.1 crore voters are female.
“We have 1.8 crore first-time voters and 19.47 crore voters between the age group of 20-29 years,” he said, adding that 88.4 lakh voters are of PwD category, 2.18 lakhs are centenarians and 48,000 are transgenders.
UP Voting Dates, Lok Sabha Election Schedule: Know Polling And Result Day In Kanpur, Ghaziabad, Varanasi, Lucknow And Other Big Constituencies
Uttar Pradesh is considered as the most crucial state politically as it sends 80 parliamentarians to the Lok Sabha. The largest state electorally remains one of the key focus areas of political parties as it has the power to be a game-changer for them. It is often said that the road to Delhi passes through Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh, which is the most populous state of India. According to major opinion polls, the ruling BJP is projected to sweep the Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh with a record mandate this time.
UP Lok Sabha: Looking Back At 2019 And 2014 Results
In the 2019 general election, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 62 seats in the state while its ally Apna Dal (S) bagged two seats. Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) secured 10 seats while Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party (SP) had five seats to its name. Congress, on the other hand, managed to secure only one seat. Meanwhile, in 2014, the Narendra Modi-led party won a massive 71 seats in the state. The SP won five seats, Congress won two seats, others won two seats and the BSP did not win any seats.
The BJP is hopeful of repeating the success of the last two general elections in the Hindi heartland state of Uttar Pradesh. Very recently, the saffron party also emerged victorious in the Rajya Sabha polls conducted in the state as it managed to grab eight out of the ten seats on which polling took place. The opposition SP took away two seats.
The state has a total of 80 constituencies. Of these, 63 are unreserved seats while 17 seats are reserved for the SC candidates. The key constituencies to watch out for in the state are Varanasi, Rae Bareli, Lucknow, and Amethi.
All eyes will be on the Varanasi seat — which is the Lok Sabha constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi — where Congress and BJP are set to put up a strong show. Recently, Congress and SP announced a seat-sharing pact for the Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh — under which Congress will contest Varanasi, Rae Bareli and Amethi seats. Under the pact, the grand old party will fight on 17 seats while the Akhilesh Yadav-led party and other INDIA bloc allies will contest on 63 seats.
As the state gears up for another electoral battle, the attention will be on whether Congress bastions of Rae Bareli and Amethi will get a Gandhi contender this time or not. The constituency of Rae Bareli was won by former Congress president Sonia Gandhi five consecutive times, however, she decided not to contest again and has now been elected to the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan. Since her move, speculations have been rife that her daughter and party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi may make her electoral debut from the seat this year.
Political parties have already begun announcing their candidates for the general elections. BJP has so far released two lists of candidates. Congress has also released two lists of candidates for the polls. Meanwhile, the Election Commission on March 14 uploaded data on electoral bonds on its website as received from SBI. Future Gaming and Hotel Services and Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Ltd were among the top donors to political parties.
Various petitions were filed before the top court challenging amendments made to different statutes through the Finance Act 2017 and Finance Act 2016 on the ground that they have opened doors to unlimited, unchecked funding of political parties.