Industrialist Naveen Jindal, who represented the Congress Party in Parliament as MP from Kurukshetra for 10 years, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday, ahead of the Lok Sabha polls which start next month.

On his X page, Jindal wrote: "I represented Congress Party in Parliament as MP from Kurukshetra for 10 years. I want to thank the Congress leadership and the then Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh. Today, I am quitting the primary membership of the Congress Party."

India gearing up for Lok Sabha polls

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Wednesday issued notification for the first phase of Lok Sabha elections for 102 seats.

In the first phase, elections will be held on April 19, with 102 Lok Sabha seats in 17 states and four Union Territories.

These include 33 seats in Tamil Nadu, 12 seats in Rajasthan, 8 seats in Uttar Pradesh, 6 seats in Madhya Pradesh, 5 seats each in Uttarakhand, Assam, and Maharashtra, 4 seats in Bihar, 3 seats in West Bengal, 2 seats each in Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, and Meghalaya, and one seat each in Chhattisgarh, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, Anadaman, and Nicobar Islands, Jammu and Kashmir, Lakshadweep, and Puducherry will go to polls in this first phase.

Nominations can be filed until the 27th of this month. Voting will be held on April 19.

The General Elections for 543 Lok Sabha seats will be held in seven phases starting on April 19. The counting will be held on June 4.