Phase I of India 2009 Elections

Lok Sabha General Elections Phase I

India Elections 2009 kicked off today, April 16th'2009, with the first phase of votings in 17 states and Union Territories. From 7 a.m. Thursday morning, fate of 1,715 candidates will start to get recorded in the electronic voting machines. A total of 124 parliamentary constituencies will go to polls on 16th April. Although, the voters will have to wait for over a month to know the results, as the counting for all constituencies will be done together on the 16th May.

States and Union Territories going to polls today are Arunachal Pradesh, Kerala, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Chhattisgarh, the Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Lakhsadweep. Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh and Orissa are also being held simultaneously. Hence, 154 Assembly constituencies of Andhra Pradesh and 70 of Orissa will witness elections on Thursday as well.

Before you go out to vote today, please keep in mind that 222 candidates contesting today have criminal records against them. 21 have been booked for Killing people, 38 for attempt to murder and 14 under charges of kidnapping. Bihar has 51 of its 222 candidates with criminal cases, Andhra Pradesh has 34 of 314, Jharkhand has 17 of 79, Uttar Pradesh has 46 of 268 and Chhattisgarh 9 of 171.

Fate of some big names were entered in the EVM's today. Some of them include RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav from Saran, BJP's Sushma Swaraj, and also stalwart Murli Manohar Joshi from Varanasi, Yashwant Sinha from Hazaribagh, TRS chief K Chandrasekhara Rao from Mehaboobnagar, NCP's Praful Patel from Bhandara-Gondia, Congress's Meira Kumar, daughter of Jagjeevan Ram, from Sasaram and Renuka Chowdhury from Khammam. (More names in list below.)

Understanding Phase I Polls:

Update - How First Phase polls went:

Almost 60 % voting was recorded in the first phase of the Lok Sabha polls. Bihar had a 40-45 % voter turnout and some violence as naxal's shot dead two security personnel in Gaya district. Andhra Pradesh recorded 68% voting, with Medak receiving highest of 75% and state capital Hyderabad lowest with just 54%. Kerala saw 73.33% voters coming out while it was 64% in Assam. Nagaland saw a 55 to 60 % turnout for its single parliamentarys seat and by-poll in four assemble segments. Ramanthuruth saw a 88.23% voting percentage, but the fact is there were just 17 voters here, of which 2 did not vote.

Total 19 people were killed in naxal fights in the first phase of votings. 9 in Jharkhand, 7 in Chhattisgarh and 3 in Bihar.

Phase I seat winners in 2004 & 2009 predictions:

The 2009 Elections Map of India:

Mouse-over on the respective state names to know the election dates in that state. Click on the state names for more news.