Stage set for phase I of LS polls, voting in 91 seats

New Delhi: Ninety-one Lok Sabha constituencies spread across 18 states and two UTs, including all in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, will go to polls on Thursday in the first phase, with Nitin Gadkari, Kiren Rijiju and VK Singh among several Union ministers in the fray.

In Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim and Odisha, assembly polls to 175, 32 and 28 seats, respectively, will be held simultaneously in the first phase.

Voting for 543 Lok Sabha seats will be held in seven phases: April 11, April 18, April 23, April 29, May 6, May 12 and May 19. Counting will be done on May 23.

In Uttar Pradesh on eight seats, the ruling BJP will clash with the newly-formed SP-BSP-RLD alliance.

Seven Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra will go to polls.

In Bihar, four Lok Sabha seats will see polling on Thursday.

In the North East, of the two seats in Arunachal Pradesh Union Minister Kiren Rijiju is seeking re-election from Arunachal West.

Four seats in Assam will go to polls on Thursday.

Sixty lakh voters in Odisha will exercise their franchise in the first phase of polls for four Lok Sabha and 28 assembly seats on Thursday.

Two seats each in West Bengal, J&K and Meghalaya will see polling in the first phase.

Lone Lok Sabha seats going to polls on April 11 include Mizoram, Tripura, Manipur, Nagaland, Sikkim, Andaman and Nicobar, and Lakshadweep.