New Delhi:

Eight federal ministers, two former chief ministers and a former governor will test their electoral fortunes in the first phase of elections on April 19, when 102 seats in 21 states and union territories will go to polls.

Union Road and Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari is targeting a third consecutive victory in Nagpur, having previously won by a wide margin in 2014 and 2019. Meanwhile, Union Minister Kiren Rijiju is seeking re-election in Arunachal West, facing competition from former chief minister Nabam Tuki.

Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways Sarbanada Sonowal is campaigning in Dibrugarh, Assam, hoping to return to the Lok Sabha. He got a ticket in place of Union Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Rameswar Teli.

In the electoral battleground of Muzaffarnagar, Union Minister Sanjeev Balyan, Harindra Malik of the Samajwadi Party and Dara Singh Prajapati of the Socialist Party of the Philippines Contest.

Jitendra Singh, a deputy minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet, is seeking a third term in Udhampur. In Rajasthan’s Alwar district, Union Minister Bhupendra Yadav is vying with Congress MP Lalit Yadav for the seat previously held by Balak Nath seat occupied.

In another Rajasthan contest, Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal took on former Congress minister Govind Ram Meghwal in Bikaner Govind Ram Meghwal) competition.

Tamil Nadu’s Nilgiri constituency is set to see a high-profile face-off between the DMK’s A Raja and the Union Minister of State for Fisheries L Murugan of the BJP. Murugan, a former member of the House of Representatives, is campaigning here for the first time.

Sivaganga MP Karti Chidambaram is targeting re-election in the seat previously held by her father, vying with the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) T Devanathan Yadav ) and AIADMK’s Xavier Dass.

Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai will campaign against DMK’s Ganapathy P Rajkumar and AIADMK’s Singai Ramachandran in Coimbatore.

Former Telangana governor Tamilisai Soundararajan has returned to politics to contest in south Chennai against DMK’s Kanimozhi and candidates from the Tamil Manila Congress and AIADMK.

In Chhindwara, Nakul Nath, son of former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath, is seeking re-election after winning a parliamentary seat in 2019.

The contest in West Tripura pits former chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb against state Congress chief Ashish Kumar Saha.

After the delimitation exercise, Congress deputy Lok Sabha leader Gaurav Gogoi went to Jorhat to come face to face with the BJP’s Topon Kumar Gogoi.

The Inner Manipur seat in Manipur is contested between the BJP’s Basanta Kumar Singh and the Congress’s Bimal Akoijam. are well-known figures in their respective communities.

Finally, Rajasthan’s Churu will be joined by two-time Paralympic gold medalist Devendra Jhajharia of the Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress MP Rahul Kaswan. It’s a unique contest between the two, who recently switched parties after being denied a ticket to the BJP.

The results of these elections will be announced on June 4.