Jaipur, April 19 (UNI) Polling for 12 parliamentary constituencies in the first phase of Lok Sabha elections in Rajasthan began amid tight security arrangements on Friday.
Chief Electoral Officer Praveen Gupta said that the polling, which began at 7 am will continue till 6 pm across 12 parliamentary constituencies.
He said that the 12 constituencies where voting is being held in the first phase are Ganganagar, Bikaner, Churu, Jhunjhunu, Sikar, Jaipur Rural, Jaipur, Alwar, Bharatpur, Karauli-Dholpur, Dausa, and Nagaur. A total of 114 candidates, including 102 male and 12 females, are in the fray in this phase.
Gupta said that to ensure free, fair, and transparent polling, stringent security arrangements have been made. "Ten companies of the paramilitary forces have been deployed for security and will remain stationed after polling to safeguard electronic voting machines (EVMs), which are placed under triple-layer security along with CCTV surveillance," he said.
He said that polling is held at 24,370 polling booths, including 23,651 main polling stations and 719 auxiliary polling stations. Voter turnout is expected to exceed 254 million, compared to 232 million in the 2019 elections.
He said that 2,53,15,541 electorates, including 1,33,99,914 males and 1,20,29,392 females, are eligible to cast their votes. Besides, there are 1,14,690 service voters.
Gupta highlighted that more than 7.98 lakh first-time voters aged between 18 and 19 are eligible to cast their ballots for the Lok Sabha elections. Additionally, there are 2,51,250 differently-abled voters across the constituencies.
In this phase, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded 12 candidates, Congress 10, and one each from the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) and the Marxist Communist Party of India (MCPI).
Underlining strategic alliances, the Congress has refrained from fielding candidates in support of the MCPI in Sikar and the RLP in Nagaur.
In terms of voter distribution, Jaipur leads with 2,288,793 voters, while Dausa has the lowest with 1,930,520 voters. The highest number of voters aged over 100, totaling 8,699, are in the Jhunjhunu constituency.
Officials said that 76,962 security personnel have been deployed on poll duty to ensure peaceful voting. Along with Rajasthan Police personnel, Home Guards, Forest Guards and RAC jawans have been deployed in these.
Besides, 175 companies of Central Police Forces will also assist in law and order and security during voting. These companies have been deployed in sensitive areas. Flying squads, SST teams have been deployed in every Lok Sabha constituency for intensive checking and monitoring on the polling day.
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