Smriti Irani
Before filing the nomination papers, Union Minister Smriti Irani on Thursday said that for her party and its leaders, nation always comes first.
“For us, the nation comes first, then the party and lastly me,” said Irani while talking to reporters in Amethi, Uttar Pradesh.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate is all set to face Rahul Gandhi in Amethi once again. Last time she suffered defeat by the Congress president.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and other senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders are accompanying her.
Meanwhile, polling for the first phase of Lok Sabha elections 2019 commenced on Thursday. In 91 constituencies across India, over 14.21 crore voters will decide the fate of 1,279 candidates in the first phase of Lok Sabha elections 2019.
In terms of number of Lok Sabha seats, the first phase is third biggest among the seven phases in which the election will be conducted. More than 1.70 lakh polling booths set up across 20 states and Union Territories.
There are 7,22,17,733 male voters and 6,98,55931 female voters. There are an additional 7,764 third gender voters.
The General elections are scheduled to be held in seven phases from 11 April to 19 May 2019 to constitute the 17th Lok Sabha. The counting of votes will be conducted on 23 May, and on the same day the results will be declared.
Legislative Assembly elections in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim will be held simultaneously with the general election.
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