Around 2,500 voters crossed fencing on the India-Bangladesh border to cast their votes in Tripura on April 19.

The barbed wire fencing might have cast a shadow on their lives but none of them want to miss the opportunity to exercise their franchise in the biggest festival of democracy. A substantial number of voters in Tripura for historical reasons, had to stay beyond the barbed wire fencing.

Those who have attained the legal age for voting are now enrolled in the electoral rolls of Tripura. Since morning, the border gates have been opened to facilitate the voting.

Amid heightened security given the polls, Indian citizens, who are sort of cut off from the mainstream, expressed that they have been receiving all kinds of cooperation from the authorities so that they can cast their votes without any hassle.

Speaking to ANI, an Indian citizen Hafizur Rahmanz who lives in the Bangladesh side of the barbed wire fencing said all the 50 voters who live in his village are eager to cast their votes in these elections.

“My name is Hafizur Rahman. I live on the other side of the fence. The situation is quite good. The voting is also proceeding smoothly. There are 19 families consisting of 50 voters. Most of them have cast their votes in the morning and the remaining voters will soon come to cast their votes,” said Rahman.

The voting also coincided with “Jumma.”. “Due to Jumma, some people were busy with religious activities. All of them will certainly come to cast votes,” Rahman told ANI, adding that the border gates stay open when the polling is underway.

The border guarding forces deployed at the border gates verify the photo identification cards of the villagers who have to cross the fence every day. On the voting day as well, there was no exception. In the Jayanagar area, located very close to Agartala city, female BSF personnel have been discharging their duties.

Ful Banu Begam, another resident of the same village that falls under the Ramnagar assembly constituency, said, “The families living in our village have been participating in the election process since morning. We have faced no problems so far. Several people have already voted; others are getting ready to cast their votes. Everything is going on peacefully. We live ahead of the fence. This 80C gate behind me helps us cross the borders.”

According to the Returning Officer West Tripura Parliamentary seat, the total number of voters living ahead of the fence stands at 2,500. All the ahead-of-fence villages fall under the jurisdiction of the West Tripura Parliamentary Constituency.

“The voting turnout is satisfactory and if the trends keep rising at the same pace, the total voting turnout will certainly cross the 80 per cent mark,” said RO West Tripura Dr Vishal Kumar.

He said that around 34 per cent of the voters casted their vote adding that administration and police made rounds to keep a strict vigil on the safety and security of the voters.

On the security measures in bordering areas given the history of violence in the area, he said, “Since Ramnagar is a border-aligned area and it has a history of poll violence, we have made adequate arrangements for security personnel. Teams of administration and police have been making rounds to keep a strict vigil. According to reports received from the polling stations, the voting process is underway smoothly and no untoward incident has occurred so far.”

On the population living ahead of fencing areas, Dr Kumar said, “If you consider the whole Parliamentary Constituency, more than 2,500 voters are residing between the zero line and fencing and most of them are living in Boxanagar. The population there is around 1,600 and all will vote here. We have seen that a large number of voters participated in the polls last year. More than 90 per cent of them cast their votes. We hope the same scenario will be there this year also.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

With just a day left for the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections to be held on April 19, let us look at the big faces in the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA versus the opposition’s INDIA bloc.

The Coimbatore Lok Sabha seat will witness a high-stakes battle, with Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai facing DMK leader Ganapathy P Rajkumar and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam AIADMK’s Singai Ramachandran.

The candidature of its Tamil Nadu state president shows that the BJP is pressing hard to increase its presence in South India.

K Annamalai faces strong competition from parties like DMK and AIADMK, which hold prominent significance in Tamil Nadu with their dedicated followers.

In his post on X, Annamalai said, “For an honest political change to take place in Tamil Nadu, for youth politics to be born, for equal opportunities to flourish for all, for the pride of Kongu land to be known throughout the country, for Coimbatore to travel on the path of development, I earnestly request all the voters of the Coimbatore Parliament to vote for the lotus symbol.”

Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari, will be eyeing a third straight victory from Maharashtra’s Nagpur seat.

The seat will witness the contest between senior BJP leader Nitin Gadkari and Congress candidate Vikas Thakre, who is currently the Nagpur West MLA.

Recently, Nitin Gadkari released ‘Vachan Nama’ (Manifesto) for the Nagpur Lok Sabha constituency.

“We plan to open an organic fruits and vegetables and foodgrains market in Nagpur,” he said.

“I am 101 per cent sure of my victory. This time I will win the election with a very good margin. Given the support of the public, their enthusiasm, the hard work of the party workers, I will try my best to win with a margin of more than 5 lakhs,” Gadkari said after his name was announced by the party.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Nitin Gadkari registered victory with a massive vote share of 55.7 per cent. He defeated the current Maharashtra Congress President, Nana Patole, with a victory margin of 2,16,009 votes.

Jitin Prasada, who quit Congress in 2021, is one of the prominent faces of the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections as he replaced two-time MP from Pilibhit, Varun Gandhi.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has demonstrated a solid majority in UP in the previous two Lok Sabha elections, gaining the majority of seats.

The Samajwadi Party fielded Bhagwant Saran Gangwar, and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) fielded Anees Ahmes Khan against Jitin Prasada.

Jitin Prasada secured victory in the 2004 elections from Shahajahanpur and the 2009 elections from Dharura seats.

In the 2019 elections, BJP leader Feroze Varun Gandhi emerged victorious in Pilibhit, securing a notable mandate with 704,549 votes with 59.4 per cent of votes.

Former Bihar Chief Minister, Jitan Ram Manjhi is contesting the Gaya seat in Bihar. This election holds important political significance for the 79-year-old Manjhi.

Gaya has the highest number of 14 candidates contesting the elections. In the 2024 election, the BJP has left the Gaya (reserved) seat for its ally, the Hindustani Awam Morcha-Secular (HAM-S).

Jitan Ram Manjhi and former minister and RJD candidate Kumar Sarvjeet are in the electoral fray.

The seat was earlier represented in parliament by Vijay Kumar, alias Vijay Manjhi of JD(U).

In the last Lok Sabha election, JD (U) candidate defeated Manjhi by a margin of more than 1.52 lakh votes. Manjhi’s HAM was part of a grand alliance in the last election.

Jitan Ram Manjhi earlier said that whenever they are going, everyone is raising slogans of ‘Abki Baar 400 paar’.

“Wherever we are going, everyone is raising slogans of ‘Abki baar 400 paar’. People themselves are saying that they will vote for PM Modi. We don’t see any challenge,” he said.

The BJP is leaving no stone unturned to snatch the alone seat won by the Congress in the 2019 elections, Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh.

Nakul Nath, son of former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath is fighting again from the Chhindwara seat against BJP candidate Vivek Bunty Sahu, who had lost to Kamal Nath in the last two assembly polls.

The BJP already showed in the recently conducted assembly polls that it has an upper advantage in the Hindi heartland states.

In the 2019 elections, Congress leader Nakul Nath got a total of 47.1 per cent of vote share whereas the defeated BJP candidate touched 44.1 per cent.

Madhya Pradesh has a total of 29 Lok Sabha seats.

After filing the nomination papers, Nakul Nath said, “I have full faith that the people of Chhindwara will give their love and blessings to me again.”

The Jorhat seat in Assam will decide if the Congress’ deputy leader in Lok Sabha, Gaurav Gogoi can make it to the elected house this time too.

The Constituency has been seen as a stronghold of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

However, Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi’s decision to contest the elections from Jorhat, instead of his family’s stronghold Kaziranga (erstwhile Kaliabor) — from where he is sitting MP — has made the contest interesting.

Topon Kumar Gogoi, the sitting MP, will contest against Gaurav Gogoi. In the 2019 elections, Topon got 5,43,288 of votes while Congress candidate Sushanta Borgohain got 4,60,635 of votes.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)