Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday took to X to extend his best wishes to first-time voters as polling commenced for 199 Assembly seats in Rajasthan. He urged voters of all age groups to participate, emphasizing the importance of exercising their franchise.
“Voting will be held today for the Rajasthan Assembly. I request voters across all age groups to come out in big numbers and exercise their franchise. I would also like to convey my best wishes to all my young friends who are going to vote for the first time,” PM Modi posted in Hindi on X, formerly Twitter.
Voting for 199 out of 200 seats in Rajasthan began at 7 am on Saturday after days of hectic campaigning by major political parties including the ruling Congress and BJP.
Of 5.26 crore voters, 21.9 lakh new young voters (18-19 years) and 18,462 voters above the age of 100 years.
Besides two major political parties, BSP’s 188 candidates, AAP’s 87, Rashtriya Loktantrik Party’s (RLP) 77, Bhartiya Tribal Party (BTP) 5 and CPI-M’s 17 contestants are vying the election. Out of 1875 candidates, the Congress has fielded 200 (with one alliance of RLD), BJP 200, Independents 737, BSP 185, AAP 86, RLD 78, and CPI-M Three.
The high-stakes election campaign concluded in Rajasthan on Thursday. Out of the 200 assembly seats, 199 will be contested today, as elections in the Karanpur constituency were adjourned due to the unfortunate passing away of the Congress candidate Gurmeet Singh Koonar.
In 2018, the Congress won 99 seats, while the BJP won 73. Gehlot assumed the CM position with the support of BSP MLAs and independents.