NEW DELHI: Polling will be held on Monday (today) for the fourth phase of Lok Sabha election in 72 parliamentary constituencies spread across nine states.
Voting will take place in 17 seats in Maharashtra, 13 each in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, eight in West Bengal, six each in Madhya Pradesh and Odisha, five in Bihar, three in Jharkhand and a part of the Anantnag constituency in Jammu and Kashmir.
In the first three phases, voting has been held in 302 Lok Sabha constituencies, and 168 more seats will go to polls in the last three phases.
The fate of 961 candidates, including Union Ministers Giriraj Singh, Subhash Bhamre, S.S. Ahluwalia and Babul Supriyo of the BJP and former Union Ministers Salman Khurshid and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury of the Congress, will be decided by about 12.79 core voters in the fourth phase.
Among other key contestants in the fray are Kanhaiya Kumar (CPI), Baijayant Panda (BJP), Urmila Matondkar (Congress), Dimple Yadav (Samajwadi Party), Satabdi Roy (TMC) and Milind Deora (Congress).
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has set up 1.40 lakh polling booths/stations and has made elaborate security arrangements.
Over 45.26 lakh voters will decide the fate of 59 candidates in the first phase of polls for three Lok Sabha constituencies in Jharkhand.
Polling will also be held in Kulgam district, which is part of Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency. Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency is spread over four districts of Anantnag, Kulgam, Shopian, and Pulwama with 16 assembly segments. The Lok Sabha polls to this constituency are being held in three phases due to security reasons.
Election to 542 Lok Sabha seats is being conducted in seven phases between April 11 and May 19. The election in Vellore constituency in Tamil Nadu has been canceled following excess use of money power. Results will be declared on May 23.
