New Delhi:

The first phase of voting for the Lok Sabha elections will be held in 102 constituencies in 21 states and central territories, accounting for nearly one-fifth of the total seats in the lower house. While states like Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Bihar will vote in all seven seats, all 39 seats in Tamil Nadu, all 5 seats in Uttarakhand, Arunachal Pradesh and M.P. Voters in 2 seats each in Galaya and 1 seat each in Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Lakshadweep will complete their voting on Friday.

Voting will be held in two seats in Manipur, but one of them – Outer Manipur – will go to polls again in the second phase. A total of 1,625 candidates are competing.

Here are some of the key supporters and faces of this phase:

Nitin Gadkari (Nagpur constituency)

The federal road transport and highways minister will contest from the constituency, which was held by Vilas Muttemwar of the Congress party for four terms until 2014. Since then, Mr Gadkari has won twice from the constituency, where the RSS has its headquarters, and will be the candidate from the constituency. This time he hopes to complete a hat trick. The Congress candidate for these elections is Vikas Thakre, MLA from Nagpur West and former mayor of the city.

The battle is also between the BJP, Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde faction) and the NCP (Ajit Pawar faction) alliance (called “Mahayuti”); Congress, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) and NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) , whose name is Maha Vikas Aghadi.

Karti Chidambaram (Sivaganga constituency)

Like most parts of Tamil Nadu, Sivaganga constituency faces a three-corner contest. The candidates are Karti Chidambaram of the Congress, Devanathan Yadav of the BJP and Xavier Das of the AIADMK. Karti Chidambaram won from this constituency in 2019 and his father P Chidambaram had held the constituency seven times in the past. In 2019, Karti Chidambaram defeated the BJP’s Raja by more than 330,000 votes.

K Annamalai, Coimbatore constituency

Tamil Nadu BJP president and former IPS officer K Annamalai will contest from the constituency, which was won by CPM’s PR Natarajan in 2019. He will contest against AIADMK’s Singal Ramachandran and DMK’s Ganapathi Rajkumar. Coimbatore is special for the BJP as it was the only Lok Sabha constituency the party won in 1999 and failed to open an account in subsequent general elections (barring 2014).

Nakulnath (Chhindwara) constituency

Chhindwara constituency is special for the Congress as it is the only seat in Madhya Pradesh that the Congress won in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, with the remaining 28 seats going to the BJP. It was one of only two victories for Congress in 2014. Nakul Nath, son of former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath, won the seat in 2019 by a margin of 37,000 votes and will now face off against ‘Bunty’ Vivek (Vivek ‘Bunty) competing against the BJP’s Sahu. Kamal Nath has won the constituency nine times and defeated Mr Sahu in the 2023 assembly elections.

Dayanidhi Maran, Chennai Central Constituency

Veteran DMK leader Dayanidhi Maran will meet Vinoj Selvam of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Dravidian stronghold of Chennai Central Contest. Mr Malan, a former Union Telecommunications Minister, has won from the constituency three times, including in 2019. Mr. Selvam, the president of the Tamil Nadu Bharatiya Janata Party, contested the 2021 assembly elections but failed.