New Delhi: The world’s biggest voting process has started. Voting has started in 102 Lok Sabha seats of 21 states and Union Territories. In addition, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim assembly elections will also be held. Voting has started from 7 am after the mock poll. Voting is going on under tight security.

Voting has started in 1 lakh 87 thousand polling centers in the first phase. 16 crore 63 lakh people will vote. 18 lakh polling staff have been appointed for this. 41 helicopters, 84 special trains and 1 lakh cars have been deployed for polling. In the first phase, there are 1,625 candidates in the electoral field. Among them, 1 thousand 491 are male candidates while 134 are female candidates.

Voting will be held from 7 am to 6 pm. Tamil Nadu has the maximum number of 39 seats in the 102 Lok Sabha seats. Similarly, 12 seats in Rajasthan, 8 seats in UP, 5 seats in Uttarakhand, 4 seats in Bihar, 4 seats in Assam, 6 seats in Madhya Pradesh, 2 seats in Arunachal Pradesh, 3 seats in West Bengal, 5 seats in Maharashtra and one seat each in Chhattisgarh, Tripura, Jammu and Kashmir, Andaman and Nicobar, Lakshadweep and Puducherry.

The public will decide the fate of 9 Union Ministers, 2 former Chief Ministers and one former Governor in this election. It includes Union Road Transport Minister Pteen Gadkari, Union Science Minister Kiren Rijiju, former Assam Chief Minister and Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, Sanjeev Balliyan, Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Jitendra Singh, Rajya Sabha MP and Water Resources Minister Bhupendra Yadav, Arjun Ram Meghawal, Nishith Satnik and L Murugun.