A voter turnout of over 59 percent has been recorded till 8 PM in the seventh and final phase of Lok Sabha elections for which polling was conducted today, In this phase, the polling was held in 57 Parliamentary Constituencies spread over seven States and one Union Territory. These include 13 seats each in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, nine in West Bengal, eight in Bihar, six in Odisha, four in Himachal Pradesh, three in Jharkhand and one Parliamentary Constituency in Chandigarh. In Bihar, around 50 per cent voter turnout was recorded while Chandigarh registered around 63 per cent and Jharkhand over 69 percent voting. In Punjab, around 56 percent of polling was recorded while in Uttar Pradesh around 56 percent and West Bengal registered around 70 percent turnout. In Odisha, the voter turnout was recorded around 64 percent where simultaneous polling was also held for the remaining 42 Assembly seats.
A total of 904 candidates were in the fray in this seventh and last phase of Lok Sabha elections. Prominent among them are Prime Minister and Senior BJP leader Narendra Modi, party leaders Anurag Thakur, Ravi Shankar Prasad and Kangana Ranaut, Congress leader Manish Tiwari and Vikramaditya Singh, RJD leader Misa Bharti, and Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee. In addition, assembly by-elections for six constituencies in Himachal Pradesh and one seat each in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal was also conducted today.
This seventh phase marked a grand finish to the world’s largest polling marathon that began on 19th of April. Preparations are in full swing for the counting of votes for the Lok Sabha elections on Tuesday.
