The Lok Sabha elections witness the participation of eight Union ministers, two former Chief Ministers, and one former governor in the electoral contest during the inaugural phase

Eight Union ministers, two former chief ministers, and one ex-governor are poised to determine their electoral destiny in the inaugural phase of elections, as ballots are cast for 102 seats spanning 21 states and Union territories.

Nitin Gadkari, the Union Road and Transport Minister, endeavors to secure a triumphant third term from the Nagpur constituency. In 2014, he triumphed over the seven-time MP Vilas Muttemwar by a substantial margin of 2.84 lakh votes, and in 2019, he sustained his victory by defeating the current Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole by 2.16 lakh votes.

Kiren Rijiju, a Union minister, vies for the Arunachal West seat. The 52-year-old has represented the constituency thrice since 2004. Rijiju’s principal opponent is the former chief minister and current president of Arunachal Pradesh Congress, Nabam Tuki.

Sarbanada Sonowal, the Union Minister of Ports, Shipping, and Waterways, seeks to reclaim his position in the Lok Sabha from Dibrugarh in Assam. Sonowal, a member of the Rajya Sabha, was nominated from Dibrugarh subsequent to the non-allocation of a ticket to Union Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Rameswar Teli.

Muzaffarnagar, renowned for its intricate caste dynamics, witnesses a three-way electoral skirmish, with Union minister Sanjeev Baliyan contending against the Samajwadi Party’s Harindra Malik and BSP candidate Dara Singh Prajapati.

Jitendra Singh, a two-time parliamentarian and a junior minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet, aims for a hat-trick in Udhampur.

Bhupendra Yadav, a Union minister and Rajya Sabha member who has replaced the incumbent MP Balak Nath, engages in a contest with the sitting Congress MLA Lalit Yadav, hailing from the Matsya region of Alwar district in Rajasthan, who enjoys the support of the Yadav community.

Arjun Ram Meghwal, the Union Law Minister, is pitted against the former Congress minister Govind Ram Meghwl for the Bikaner parliamentary seat in Rajasthan.

The Nilgiris Lok Sabha constituency in Tamil Nadu is the stage for one of the most closely watched battles between A Raja, the incumbent DMK MP and former telecom minister, and L Murugan of the BJP, who currently serves as the Union Minister of State for Fisheries. This marks Murugan’s inaugural bid for the seat, having been elected to the Rajya Sabha from Madhya Pradesh previously.

Karti Chidmabaram, the Sivaganga MP, aims for reelection from the constituency his father held for seven terms, competing against BJP’s T Devanathan Yadav and AIADMK’s Xavier Dass.

K Annamalai, the Tamil Nadu BJP president, is poised to undergo the electoral test in Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore, where she confronts DMK leader Ganapathy P Rajkumar and AIADMK’s Singai Ramachandran.

Tamilisai Soundararajan, who recently relinquished her position as governor of Telangana and Lt Governor of Puducherry to re-enter active politics, contends for the Chennai South Lok Sabha constituency. Daughter of veteran Congress leader Kumari Anantha, Soundararajan contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections against DMK’s Kanimozhi, suffering a significant defeat in Thoothukudi.

This time, Kanimozhi seeks reelection from the seat. NDA ally Tamil Maanila Congress (Moopanar) has nominated SDR Vijayaseelan, while AIADMK has fielded R Sivasami Velumani from the constituency.

Nakul Nath, the son of Congress leader and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath, seeks reelection in Chhindwara.

The seat has remained firmly in Kamal Nath’s grasp, having secured victory nine times since 1980. In the 2019 polls, although the BJP clinched 28 seats out of the state’s 29, it fell short in Chhindwara, where Nakul defeated the BJP’s candidate by 37,536 votes to emerge as the sole Congress MP in the state.

Of the two Lok Sabha constituencies in Tripura, the West Tripura seat, which votes in the first phase on April 19, witnesses a high-stakes showdown between former chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb and state Congress president Ashish Kumar Saha.

Having secured victory twice in Lok Sabha elections since 2014 from the Kaliabor constituency in Assam, Gaurav Gogoi, the Congress’ deputy leader in Lok Sabha and son of former chief minister Tarun Gogoi, finds himself as the fresh candidate in neighboring Jorhat, where BJP’s Topon Kumar Gogoi emerged victorious in 2019.

Gaurav Gogoi’s relocation to Jorhat ensued following the repercussions of the delimitation exercise in his 2019 constituency, Kaliabor.

Basanta Kumar Singh, Manipur’s Law and Education Minister, stands as the BJP’s candidate for the Inner Manipur constituency, opposing JNU professor and Congress candidate Bimal Akoijam.

Singh, hailing from the Meiti community, is the offspring of Thounaojam Chaoba Singh, who served as the Union Minister of State for sports, youth affairs, culture, and food processing in the NDA government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Churu, a stronghold of the BJP in northern Rajasthan, braces itself for an intriguing contest between BJP candidate Devendra Jhajharia, a two-time Paralympic gold medallist javelin thrower, and Rahul Kaswan from the Congress. Kaswan, a defector who left the BJP in March after being denied a ticket, has added intrigue to the battle for Churu.

Polling for the 543 seats to elect the 18th Lok Sabha will be conducted in seven phases. The ballots will be tallied on June 4.