Lok Sabha elections begin on Thursday with polling in 91 seats

Ninety-one Lok Sabha constituencies spread across 18 states and two Union Territories, including all in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, will go to polls on Thursday in the first phase, with Nitin Gadkari, Kiren Rijiju and VK Singh among several Union ministers in the fray.

There are 900 million Indians, including 15.9 million first-time voters, who will choose 543 MPs in the seven-phase polls, which start on April 11 and lasts nearly six weeks. The results will be announced on May 23.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seeking a second term but faces opposition from Rahul Gandhi, the head of the Congress party, who is urging voters to look at the prime minister's economic record and turf him out.

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But Congress faces a formidable opponent in Modi, with polling showing support for Modi is higher now than in 2014 when his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won an outright majority. Congress ruled India for much of its modern history but was reduced to a rump in 2014.

While Modi is contesting elections from Varanasi in eastern Uttar Pradesh, Rahul Gandhi has filed nominations from two places - Wayanad in Kerala and his home constituency of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh.

Voting will take place in seven phases, beginning on Thursday. Nearly 1 million polling booths will be set up across the country.

In Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim and Odisha, assembly polls to 175, 32 and 28 seats, respectively, will be held simultaneously in the first phase. This is the first general election in Andhra Pradesh after its bifurcation in 2014.

All 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana will also go to polls in phase one.

In Uttar Pradesh, the ruling BJP will clash with the newly-formed SP-BSP-RLD alliance on eight seats in the first phase. These seats mostly lie in the western part of the state.

Seven Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra will go to polls, with Union Minister Nitin Gadkari locked in a battle with Congress's Nana Patole, a former BJP MP. Union minister and BJP leader, Hansaraj Ahir is seeking a fourth term from Chandrapur.

In Bihar, four Lok Sabha seats will see polling on Thursday. LJP leader Chirag Paswan is contesting from Jamui reserved seat. He is the sitting MP and is locked in a virtual straight contest with Bhudeo Chaudhary of RLSP.

In the North East, of the two seats in Arunachal Pradesh Union Minister Kiren Rijiju is seeking re-election from Arunachal West. Four seats in Assam will go to polls, with former chief minister Tarun Gogoi's son Gaurav testing poll waters from Kaliabor.

In Chhattisgarh where one Lok Sabha seat, Bastar, is going to polls, security has been tightened following a Naxal attack in the constituency's Dantewada area on Tuesday. A BJP leader and four security personnel were killed. Nearly 80,000 troops, police and paramilitary personnel will be deployed in the state to ensure violence-free election.

Six million voters in Odisha will exercise their franchise in the first phase of polls for four Lok Sabha and 28 assembly seats on Thursday. The first phase of polls will decide the fate of 217 candidates. There are 26 hopefuls in fray for Lok Sabha seats and 191 for assembly seats.

Two seats each in West Bengal, Jammu and Kashmir and Meghalaya will also see polling in the first phase.

Lone Lok Sabha seats going to polls on April 11 include Mizoram, Tripura, Manipur, Nagaland, Sikkim, Andaman and Nicobar, and Lakshadweep.