LS polls: World’s shortest living woman casts her vote in Nagpur, urges everyone to vote

Nagpur (Maharashtra) [India], April 19 (ANI): The world’s shortest-living woman, Jyoti Amge on Friday cast her vote at a polling booth in Nagpur.
After casting her vote, Jyoti urged everyone to come out and vote in large numbers. “Today, I am feeling very good because I have voted. I want to say to everyone that it is our duty, so we should vote. I would appeal to you all to come out in large numbers to vote,” she said. According to Guinness World Records, Jyoti, from Nagpur, was born on December 16, 1993. At just 62.8 cm (24.7 in) tall, she holds the record for being the shortest woman in the world.

Voting for the first phase of Lok Sabha elections 2024 began at 7:00 am on Friday across 102 parliamentary constituencies spread over 21 states and Union Territories. Voting will end at 6 pm. Maharashtra, the second-largest state after Uttar Pradesh (80), which contributes 48 seats in 543-member Lok Sabha, will witness a fierce contest between the two major state coalitions – the Mahayuti (Bharatiya Janata Party, Shiv Sena, and Nationalist Congress Party) and the Maha Vikas Aghadi (Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT), and NCP (SP).

In the first phase, polling is being held in five Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra, including Chandrapur, Bhandara-Gondiya, Gadchiroli-Chimur, Ramtek, and Nagpur.
Nagpur Lok Sabha is witnessing a contest between Nitin Gadkari and Congress’ Vikas Thakre, who is currently the Nagpur West MLA. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Gadkari registered victory with a massive vote share of 55.7 per cent. He defeated the current Maharashtra Congress President, Nana Patole, with a victory margin of 2,16,009 votes. Gadkari also defeated Congress leader Vilas Muttemwar by a margin of 2,84,828 votes in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Chandrapur in Maharashtra was the only seat, out of the total 48 in the state, that Congress managed to win. But this time, the fight may not be easy for it as the BJP is sparing no effort to win back the constituency and fielded a state minister from there.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP won 23 out of 25 seats it contested in alliance with the undivided Shiv Sena. Elections to the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra will be held in five phases. The counting of votes will be held on June 4.