Kolkata, April 9 (IANS) Fifteen candidates will battle it out Thursday in the lone Lok Sabha constituency in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a picturesque archipelago of 572 islands situated in the Bay of Bengal.

There are 257,856 voters in the union territory, almost evenly balanced between men (136,356) and women (121,500).

Voting will take place in 386 polling booths.

Among the main candidates are sitting MP Bishnu Pada Ray of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Kuldip Rai Sharma of the Congress and Sanjay Meshak of the Aam Aadmi Party.

Interestingly, 12.75 percent of the electorate is in the 18-25 age-bracket.

In the 2009 elections, the BJP garnered 44.21 percent of the votes and the Congress 42.86 percent.