 "Lok Sabha elections 2024: Polling begins for 12 of 25 seats in Rajasthan")
Polling for 12 out of 25 Lok Sabha seats in Rajasthan began on Friday morning in the first phase of elections.
Voting began at 7 am in Churu, Nagaur, Ganganagar, Jhunjhunu, Bikaner, Sikar, Jaipur Rural, Jaipur, Alwar, Bharatpur, Karauli-Dholpur and Dausa constituencies. It will continue till 6 pm.
Over 25.4 million voters are eligible to vote in this round in the two-phase election in Rajasthan. Altogether, 114 candidates are in the contest for the 12 seats.
A total of 23,000 polling booths have been set up in the first phase where around 75,000 policemen have been deployed to ensure law and order, ADG Law and Order Vishal Bansal said earlier.
Elaborate security arrangements have been made to ensure elections in a free and fair manner, Bansal said.
In the first phase, the number of sensitive booths is 10,000.
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The Bharatiya Janata Party won all 25 seats in Rajasthan on its own in 2014, and in 2019, NDA won 25 seats, the saffron party won 24 seats and the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party won one seat.
Nagaur is set to witness a keen contest between the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) candidate and former MP Hanuman Beniwal, who is fighting in alliance with the Congress against BJP nominee and former Congress MP Jyoti Mirdha.
Beniwal, with the BJP's support in the 2019 elections, had defeated Mirdha, who was then a Congress candidate.
However, Beniwal separated from the NDA in 2020 over the issue of farmers' agitation.
In the Churu Lok Sabha constituency, former BJP MP Rahul Kaswan is contesting as the Congress candidate against BJP candidate and paralympic Devendra Jhajharia.
Dalit leader and Union Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal, who has been representing Bikaner Lok Sabha seat since 2009, is contesting the parliamentary elections for the fourth time.
He is contesting against Congress candidate and former state minister Govind Ram Meghwal.
In Sikar, INDIA bloc partner CPI(M) has fielded former MLA Amra Ram against BJP MP Sumedanand Saraswati.
Amra Ram had been an MLA from the Danta Ramgarh and the Dhod seats.
Sikar is the hometown of Rajasthan Congress chief Govind Singh Dotasra. Of the eight assembly segments in Sikar, five are with the Congress.