India votes: Phase One of the Lok Sabha elections 2024 in pictures

Image: Idrees MOHAMMED / AFP
A woman shows her inked finger after casting her vote at a polling station in Dugeli village of Dantewada district, Chhattisgarh, in the first phase of India's general election on April 19, 2024. Polling remained largely peaceful even in vulnerable regions like Dantewada and Bastar, which were under the shadow of Naxalism.

Image: Anushree Fadnavis /Reuters
Voters wait outside a polling station to vote during the first phase of the general election in Kairana, Uttar Pradesh, on April 19, 2024. In India's first phase of the Lok Sabha Elections 2024, 102 parliamentary seats across 21 states and union territories were up for election.

Image: Anushree Fadnavis/Reuters
A woman votes as her partner stands next to her at a polling station during the first phase of the general election in the village Kutba Kutbi, Muzaffarnagar district, Uttar Pradesh, on April 19, 2024. Voting in India, the world's largest democracy, will be conducted in seven phases between April 19 and June 1, 2024.

Image: Idrees MOHAMMED / AFP
Voters leave on a truck after casting their vote in India's general election in Dugeli village of Dantewada district, Chhattisgarh, on April 19, 2024. Sixty-seven percent braved the heat to vote in Chhattisgarh, where polling was held for the first time in 56 villages of Bastar.

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Image: Vishal Bhatnagar/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Newlywed brides arrive to cast their votes during the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections in Barwada Village in Jaipur, Rajasthan, on April 19, 2024. With over 970 million voters, comprising more than 10 percent of the world's population, the electorate will choose 543 members for the lower house of Parliament for five years.

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Police officers arrive at a shooting scene outside a polling station during the first phase of the general election in Moirangkampu in Imphal East, Manipur, on April 19, 2024. Multiple incidents of gunfire were reported close to polling stations in the valley areas of Manipur, causing damage to EVMs and vandalising a polling station in Imphal East.

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Voters holding umbrellas wait for a bus to reach a polling station during the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections in the hilly village of Banihal, Ramban district, Jammu & Kashmir. The 2024 Lok Sabha elections mark the first major election in Jammu and Kashmir since New Delhi revoked Article 370, the region's special semi-autonomous status, in 2019.

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A burqa-clad woman arrives to cast her vote at a pink polling booth during the first phase of the general elections in Deoband, Uttar Pradesh, on April 19, 2024. An initiative of the Election Commission, these all-women-staffed 'pink booths' have helped draw more women voters, especially from the Muslim community.

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Image: Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters
A polling official gets her blood pressure measured at a polling station during the first phase of the general election at Tiruvannamalai in Tamil Nadu, India, April 19, 2024. All 39 constituencies in Tamil Nadu went to polls on Friday, recording 72.09 per cent of voter turnout in the elections.

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Polling and police officers set out in a boat with election materials to reach a remote polling station ahead of the first phase of India's general election in the Majuli district in the northeastern state of Assam, Indi, on April 18, 2024. The deployment of polling officers to these remote villages scattered across the world's largest river island underscored the Election Commission's commitment to ensuring democratic participation and inclusivity

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Porters, polling officers, and security personnel hiked to a remote village in Buxa Hills on April 18, 2024, to set up a polling station in Alipurduar District, West Bengal. Situated at 2,600 feet above sea level, Buxa Hills is home to thirteen villages with about 1,500 voters. It takes two hours on foot to get from one village to another along a rugged mountain path.

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Polling officials find a novel and quick way to relay Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and other election materials to the allotted rooms on higher floors of a polling station ahead of the first phase of voting for the Lok Sabha elections in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India on April 18, 2024.

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Villagers sell momos and noodles outside a polling booth at Adma Hills in Alipurduar District, West Bengal, on April 19, 2024. The Election Commission of India has deployed advanced technology, including electronic voting machines and a Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail, to ensure a secure and transparent voting process.
 
Image: Adnan Abidi/Reuters
A woman prepares food outside her house in Nongriat village, the location of a remote polling station, on the eve of the first phase of the election, in Shillong, in the northeastern state of Meghalaya, India on April 18, 2024. Tucked away in the jungle in the south end of East Khasi Hills District, Nongriat, with an electorate of 140 voters, is one of the most serene and most challenging, unmotorable polling stations in the country

Image: Arun SANKAR / AFP
A Sadhu, or a Hindu holy man, gestures as he waits to cast his vote at a polling station in Haridwar, Uttarakhand, on April 19, 2024, in the first phase of India's general election. Sadhus (renunciates) were among the early voters on a polling day that recorded a low voter turnout of 53 percent for Uttarakhand.