Curtains came down on Tuesday on an acrimonious campaign in 124 constituencies in 17 states for the first phase of Lok Sabha polls on 16th April.RJD's Lalu Prasad, BJP's Murli Manohar Joshi, Telangana Rashtra Samiti's K Chandrasekhar Rao, Congress' Renuka Chowdhury, actress Vijayasanthi, NTR's daughter D Purandeswari and former union minister B Dattatreya are among the prominent names seeking election to the lower house of Parliament in the first phase.
While all 20 seats in Kerala and two in Meghalaya would go to polls in a single phase on Thursday, polling would also be held in parts of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Jammu and Kashmir.
The lone seats in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Mizoram and Nagaland would also be covered.
Prominent campaigners included Congress president Sonia Gandhi, BJP prime minister hopeful L K Advani, Congress youth icons Rahul and Priyanka, Gujarat Chief Minister Narednra Modi and Left party leaders Prakash Karat and A B Bardhan.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, recovering from a heart by-pass surgery in January, lent his bit to the Congress campaign when he went to Kerala and then to Mumbai.
A combined total of 124 constituencies spread across 17 states and union territories get ready to vote in the first phase of Lok Sabha polls on 16th April.
The states involved in the first phase are Andhra Pradesh(22), Kerala(20), Uttar Pradesh(16), Bihar(13), Maharashtra(13), Chhattisgarh(11), Orissa(10), Jharkhand(6), Assam(3), Lakshadweep(1), Meghalaya(2), Mizoram(1), Nagaland(1), Manipur(1), Jammu and Kashmir(1), Arunachal Pradesh(2) and Andaman and Nicobar Islands(1).
The campaigning which started in a lacklustre way but picked up as several senior national leaders including BJP Prime Ministerial candidate L K Advani, Congress president Sonia Gandhi,Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, SP president Mulayam Singh Yadav and BSP supremo Mayawati addressed several election meetings.
On the other hand, the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party president Mayawati called on the voters to support the party to grab power at the Centre while hir bitter rival Samajwadi Party with its new alliance with RJD and LJP were attacking the Congress for neglecting them at the centre.
RJD president Lalu Prasad and LJP president Ramvilas Paswan also campaigned for SP candidates.
The BSP and SP are contesting all the 16 seats while the BJP is contesting 15 and the Congress nine. The BJP has left one seat of Salempur for its partner JD(U).
Altogether 271 candidates are in the fray for the 16 seats spread over 13 districts where 2,49,31,444 voters, including 13,51,008 males, would be eligible to cast their votes in 25,919 polling booths through 29,807 EVMs.
After the end of the campaigning on Tuesday, the entire inter-state border with Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh would be sealed along with the international border of Indo-Nepal.
