Jaipur: For the first phase of Lok Sabha General Elections, more than 2.54 crore voters will exercise their franchise on Friday in 12 Lok Sabha constituencies of Rajasthan. The election department has made all the necessary arrangements for the polling. A total of 114 candidates are in the fray on these 12 seats where a direct flight is expected between the BJP and Congress or its allies.
There are 25 Loksabha constituencies in Rajasthan and polling will take place in Jaipur City, Jaipur Rural, Alwar, Churu, Sikar, Jhunjhunu, Nagaur, Dausa, Karoli-Dholpur, Bharatpur, Bikaner and Sriganganagar seats in the first phase.
2,54,29,610 voters registered in 12 seats of the first phase
As per the election department data, a total of 2,54,29,610 voters are registered in 12 seats of the first phase in the state whereas in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the number of voters in these seats was 2.32 crore.
Chief Electoral Officer Praveen Gupta said that the election department has made all the arrangements for the peaceful voting in the first phase. He said that about 7.99 lakh new voters aged 18-19 years will vote for the Lok Sabha for the first time.
BJP and Congress or its allies are in a direct fight on all the 12 seats. Bikaner, Churu, Alwar, Jaipur City, Nagaur and Sikar are the seats which are considered important contests. Two union ministers Arjun Ram Meghwal and Bhupendra Yadav are in the fray from the Bikaner and Alwar seats while In Nagaur the fight is interesting as the candidates Jyoti Mirdha and Hanuman Beniwal are the same as in the previous election but changed their sides this time.
The fight in Churu is also catching the eye bolls as the Congress candidate Rahul Kaswan was the two-times sitting MP of BJP but switched to Congress as BJP chose Para Olympic gold medalist Devendra Jhanjhadiya.
The fight in Sikar is also important as this is the home town of Congress state president Govind Singh Dotasara, but the party gave this seat to the alliance partner CPI (M). While the contest in the capital city of Jaipur is between former minister of the Ashok Gehlot government Pratap Singh Khachariawas and BJP's Manju Sharma who is the daughter of veteran BJP leader Bhanwar Lal Sharma.
The second phase of polling in the remaining 13 seats will take place on April 26.
