Voting began for the seven Lok Sabha seats of Delhi along with 52 others seats in the 6th phase of seven-phased parliamentary elections. As many as 979 candidates are in the fray.
Apart from Delhi where seven Lok Sabha seats are at stake, the polling is underway in Bihar for 8 seats, Haryana all 10 seats, Madhya Pradesh 8 seats, Uttar Pradesh 14 seats, West Bengal 8 seats and Jharkhand four seats.
The prominent among those who are in the fray are former chief ministers Akhilesh Yadav from Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh, Digvijay Singh from Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, Bhupinder Singh Hooda from Sonepat in Haryana, and Sheila Dikshit from North-East Delhi.
The other bigwigs whose fate will be decided on Sunday are Union Ministers Radha Mohan Singh from Purvi Champaran in Bihar, Dr Harsh Vardhan from Chandani Chowk in Delhi, and Narendra Singh Tomar from Morena in Madhya Pradesh.
Former Union Minister and RJD veteran Raghuvansh Prasad Singh is in the fray from Vaishali in Bihar, while Congress general secretary and also a former union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia is contesting from Guna in Madhya Pradesh.
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The key candidates whose fate will be sealed in electronic voting machines (EVMs) on Sunday in the national capital apart from Union Minister Harsh Vardhan, include Meenakshi Lekhi from New Delhi, Gautam Gambhir, Atishi from East Delhi, Raghav Chadha, Vijender Singh and Ramesh Bidhuri from South Delhi.
The re-polling is also underway on booth number 116 in Barrackpore parliamentary constituency and polling station number 110 in Arambag parliamentary constituency of West Bengal. Re-polling is also taking place at one polling station in Puducherry and at 168 polling stations in Tripura West parliamentary seat.
The fifth phase of voting took place on May 6 for 51 Lok Sabha seats spread over seven states in which the fate of several key leaders including Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Union Minister Smriti Irani has been sealed in EVMs. Over 62 per cent polling was recorded in the 5th phase of polling.
Fourteen seats in Uttar Pradesh including Amethi, Rae Bareli, and Lucknow, 12 in Rajasthan, seven each in West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh, five in Bihar and four in Jharkhand went to polls in addition to Ladakh and Anantnag constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir in the 5th phase of polling.
According to the ECI, over 8.75 crore voters were eligible to cast their ballots to decide the fate of 674 candidates across the country in the 5th phase of polling, which were held at 96,000 polling stations.
According to data released by the EC, final voter turnout in the fourth phase of ongoing Lok Sabha elections held on April 29 stood at 65.51 per cent.
The polling percentage in the fourth phase of Lok Sabha elections was the highest in West Bengal - around 76.44 per cent till 5 pm. As many as eight seats of the state went to the polls in the fourth phase.
The first three phases of elections were held on April 11, 18 and 23. The polling percentage in the first phase was recorded at 69.50, 69.44 in the second phase and 68.40 in the third phase.
The first five phases of Lok Sabha polls were held on April 11, 18, 23, 29, and May 6. The sixth and seventh phases will take place on May 12 and 19 respectively. The counting of votes will take place on May 23.
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