Voting began on Monday for the fourth phase of the Lok Sabha polls in 72 parliamentary constituencies spread across nine states.
About 12.79 crore people are eligible for voting in the fourth of the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections.
The Election Commission has set up 1.40 lakh polling booths/stations and has made elaborate security arrangements.
Polling will be held 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.
The stakes are high for the ruling BJP and its allies as it had swept 56 of these seats in 2014, leaving just two for the Congress and the rest for other opposition parties such as the Trinamool Congress (six seats) and the Biju Janata Dal (six).
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 in this 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 Lok Sabha election process in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, where the BJP had cornered all but two of the total 54 seats in 2014, will begin in this phase. The Congress appeared to make a comeback, forming the governments in the states after last year's Assembly polls.
With this phase, the Lok Sabha election will come to an end in Maharashtra and Odisha.
Voting is also being held in some Assembly constituencies in Odisha and Madhya Pradesh (bypoll in Chhindwara).
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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.
Election to 542 Lok Sabha seats is being conducted in seven phases between April 11 and May 19. Election in Vellore constituency in Tamil Nadu had been cancelled following excess use of money power. Results will be declared on May 23.
