Lok Sabha Elections 2019: How to vote in India - Step-by-step guide for first time voters

Lok Sabha Elections 2019: The second round of the mega General Elections is underway. Voters of 95 seats spread across 11 states and Union Territories are casting their ballots. The voting that began at 7 am will end at 5 pm in most of the places. Among the early voters were superstar Rajinikanth, former Union Minister P Chidambaram, his family and senior Congress leader Raj Babbar. There are many first-time voters who don’t know exactly how one can cast her vote. In case you are not aware about the procedure, News Nation brings to you an easy to remember guide for becoming an informed voter. Citizens in 91 constituencies are using their franchise in the first phase of the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections. 20 states and Union Territories are polling in the first phase.

5 step every citizen must know to cast her/his vote in India:

1: First of all, you should have a valid voter card. The card is issued by the Election Commission of India and is updated in the months of September and October every year.

2: A day before the election day, every elector is issued a voter slip. This slip has details such as where is your polling booth, serial number etc. In case you don’t get the voter slip, you can check the details of polling booth from the Election Commission’s official site.

3: Once at the polling booth, the security personnel will frisk you. No phones are allowed inside. At the booth, polling officer number 1 will check your name according to the electoral roll.

4: After verifying this, polling officer number two will ask you to provide a valid identity proof. Remember, the voter slip alone is NOT an ID proof. Officer number 3 will mark your finger with the indelible ink.

5: Polling Officer number 4 will see that you are ready to vote. Now you procced to the secret ballot box cabin. Cast your vote by pressing the button designed in the row along with the name and party symbol. A long beep would mean that your vote was successful.

The voting process will be completed in Tamil Nadu (39 seats), barring Vellore where the voting has been cancelled by the Election Commission, Puducherry (1 seat) and Manipur (2 seats). Other states which are voting are Karnataka (14/28 seats), Maharashtra (10/48 seats), Uttar Pradesh (8/80 seats), Bihar (5/40 seats), Assam (5/14 seats), Odisha (5/21 seats), West Bengal (3/42 seats), Chhattisgarh (3/11 seats) and Jammu and Kashmir (2/6 seats). The poll panel has decided to postpone the polling date of Tripura East seat to April 23 from April 18 due to law and order problem. Some of the key constituencies in the second phase of elections are Chennai Central, Coimbatore, Dharmapuri, Sivaganga, Thoothukkudi and Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu, Tumkur, Bangalore North, Bangalore South, Mysore and Mandya in Karnataka, Nanded and Solapur in Maharashtra, Agra, Mathura and Fatehpur Sikri in Uttar Pradesh, Silchar and Mangaldoi in Assam, Bolangir and Sundargarh in Odisha, Srinagar and Udhampur in Jammu and Kashmir, Banka and Katihar in Bihar, Darjeeling and Raiganj in West Bengal and Rajnandgaon in Chhattisgarh. Several prominent candidates are in the fray in the second phase of elections - Hema Malini, Raj Babbar, Farooq Abdullah, Ashok Chavan, Sushilkumar Shinde, Prakash Ambedkar, DV Sadananda Gowda, Tejaswi Surya, BK Hariprasad, HD Deve Gowda, Veerappa Moily, Shobha Karandlaje, Prajwal Revanna, KH Muniyappa, Pritam Munde, Jay Prakash Narayan Yadav, Tariq Anwar, Deepa Dasmunshi, Md Salim, Jitendra Singh, Kalikesh Singh Deo, Jual Oram and Kunwar Danish Ali.