New Delhi:

Voting for 102 seats from 21 states and Union Territories will take place in the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections today. These include all 39 seats in the politically important state of Tamil Nadu and several seats in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Maharashtra.

Here are some notable leaders competing in this phase:

Nitin Gadkari (BJP): Nagpur

India’s longest-serving road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari, who was posted to the Lok Sabha in 2014 and 2019, is planning a hat-trick in Nagpur. Mr Gadkari’s work in expanding India’s road connectivity has won praise even from his political opponents. Mr Gadkari, a former BJP national president, faces Congress MP Vikas Thakre in the high-profile seat. Mr. Thackeray is the former mayor of Nagpur and the current MP from Nagpur West.

Union Minister Kiren Rijiju is the BJP candidate from western Arunachal Pradesh, having won the seat in the 2014 and 2019 general elections. He has served as Law Minister and is currently responsible for the Earth Sciences and Food Processing Industries. Challenging him this time in Arunachal west is former chief minister and Congress candidate Nabam Tuki.

K Annamalai, one of the BJP’s most high-profile candidates in this Lok Sabha election, heads the party’s Tamil Nadu unit and has won wide popularity by articulating the party’s stance on key issues. support. The 39-year-old former IPS officer quit the department in 2019 before joining politics. He is an engineering graduate and also holds an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow. The DMK has fielded Ganapathi P Rajkumar against Mr Annamalai in Coimbatore. Mr. Rajkumar served as mayor of the city and had previously joined the AIADMK. He holds degrees in arts and law and a PhD in journalism and mass communications.

Gaurav Gogoi, Congress, Jorhat

Among Congress’s prominent young faces, Gaurav Gogoi is a two-time MP from Assam’s Kaliabor, despite the BJP’s poor poll results in 2014 and 2019 He was favored by the BJP in the survey but managed to win. This time, he is contesting from Jorhat after the Kaliabor seat ceased to exist due to delimitation. Jorhat, once a Congress bastion, was won by the BJP in the last two Lok Sabha elections. In fact, Mr Gogoi’s father, the late Tarun Gogoi, the former chief minister of Assam, also represented the seat twice. The BJP has retained the sitting MP from Jorhat, Topon Kumar Gogoi.

Tamilisai Soundararajan, Bharatiya Janata Party, Chennai South

Ms Soundararajan is a veteran of the BJP who served as the Tamil Nadu state president and was appointed Telangana governor in 2019. She also served as the Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry. She has been brought back to the polls as the BJP strives to become a formidable force in Tamil Nadu. A medical doctor, Ms. Sandra Rajan also taught at the Chennai Medical College before joining politics full-time. Her opponent is Thamizhachi Thangapandian, the current congressman and Democratic candidate.

Nakul Nath, Congress, Chhindwara

Nakul Nath, the sitting MP from Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh, is looking forward to winning again this time. He is the son of Congress veteran Kamal Nath, a businessman and one of the richest lawmakers in the country. His father represented the Chhindwara seat nine times and campaigned extensively for him. The BJP has fielded Vivek Sahu to take on Mr Nath in Congress strongholds. This time the BJP is trying hard to woo Chhindwara and it is a battle of prestige.

K Kanimozhi, DMK, Thoothukkudi

Ms. Canimozhi has twice served as a member of the Bundestag and was elected to the House of People in 2019. She is one of the most prominent voices in the parliamentary opposition and the DMK’s leading face in the national capital. In her maiden Lok Sabha contest, she won the 2019 elections by a margin of over 3 lakh votes, with the BJP’s Tamilisai Soundararajan finishing second. Ms Kanimozhi, DMK president and half-sister of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, is facing Sivasamy Velumani of the AIADMK and SDR Vijayaseelan, the Congress candidate in Tamil Nadu supported by the BJP.

Sarbananda Sonowal, BJP, Dibrugarh

Twenty years after Sarbananda Sonowal won the Dibrugarh Lok Sabha seat as the Asom Gana Parishad candidate, he is back again, this time in India BJP’s poll picks. Mr. Sonowal is a Union Minister and former Chief Minister of Assam and a current member of the Lok Sabha. His opponent is Lurinjyoti Gogoi of the Assam Jatiya Parishad, who is backed by the India Bloc party. Mr. Gogoi, a well-known figure in the anti-CAA movement in Assam, began his political career as a student leader in the All Assam Students’ Union, just like his heavyweight rival Mr. Sonowal.

Jitin Prasada, Bharatiya Janata Party, Pilibhit

Jitin Prasada got the Pilibhit vote, two years after she switched to the BJP ahead of the 2022 Uttar Pradesh elections, with the BJP replacing sitting MP Varun Gandhi Gandhi). Prasada was a trusted aide of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and won the 2004 and 2009 Lok Sabha polls but suffered defeats in the 2014 and 2019 elections. After switching to the BJP, he was appointed as a minister in the Yogi Adityanath government. The Brahmin leader is up against five-time MLA of Samajwadi Party and former minister Bhagwat Saran Gangwar and Bahujan Samaj Party’s Anees Ay Anis Ahmed Khan, who is also supported by the Congress Party.

Karti Chidambaram, Congress, Sivaganga

Congress MP Karti Chidambaram will seek to retain the Sivaganga seat in Tamil Nadu. He won the seat in the 2019 elections from which his father, former home minister P Chidambaram, had been elected seven times. Karti Chidambaram suffered a disastrous defeat in Sivaganga in 2014, finishing fourth, but made a strong comeback in 2019 and won the seat. This time, 46-year-old Karti Chidambaram is up against A Xavierdas of the AIADMK and Devanathan Yadav T of the BJP.