The fifth phase of polling on Monday has seen encouraging numbers of voters at polling stations across the country. Political heavyweights Rajnath Singh, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Smriti Irani are in the fray in this phase in which polling is underway in 14 seats in Uttar Pradesh, 12 in Rajasthan, seven seats each in West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh, five in Bihar and four in Jharkhand.
Uttar Pradesh
Nearly 23 per cent turnout was recorded Monday in the first four hours of polling in 14 Lok Sabha seats of UP where Union ministers Rajnath Singh and Smriti Irani, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Congress President Rahul Gandhi are in the fray.
Among early voters in the state capital included Home Minister Singh, BSP supremo Mayawati, Deputy CM Dinesh Sharma, BSP General Secretary Satish Chandra Mishra, DGP O.P. Singh and Principal Secretary (Home) Arvind Kumar.
Election officials said polling was going on smoothly, barring some complaints of EVM malfunctioning, which were attended to immediately.
Union minister and the BJP's Amethi candidate Smriti Irani alleged that Congress president Rahul Gandhi was "ensuring booth capturing" in the constituency.
Irani and Gandhi are contesting against each other in the seat. "Alert @ECISVEEP Congress President @Rahul Gandhi ensuring booth capturing," Irani said on Twitter.
She also tagged a video in which an elderly women is seen alleging that her hand was forcibly put on 'panja' (hand) election symbol of the Congress though she wanted to vote for the 'kamal' (lotus), the BJP's symbol.
However, there is no written complaint on the matter.
In the first four hours, 22.88 per cent polling was witnessed in the state.
Maximum of 28.41 percent voting was witnessed in Dhaurahra, while Lucknow recorded 20.98 per cent.
Raebareli and Amethi witnessed 21.28 per cent and 21.83 per cent turnout respectively, EC officials said.
The BJP had bagged 12 of these seats in 2014 with the Congress winning Rae Bareli and Amethi.
Polling was underway in Dhaurahra, Sitapur, Mohanlalganj (SC), Lucknow, Banda, Fatehpur, Kaushambi (SC), Barabanki (SC), Faizabad, Bahraich (SC), Kaiserganj and Gonda constituencies where a total of 182 candidates are in the fray.
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is contesting on five seat—Dhaurahra, Sitapur, Mohanlalganj, Fatehpur and Kaisarganj.
Its ally Samajwadi Party (SP) is fighting for seven seats -Lucknow, Banda, Kaushambi, Barabanki, Faizabad, Bahraich and Gonda.
In Amethi and Rae Bareli, the SP-BSP alliance has not put up any candidate, leaving the two constituencies for the Congress.
The Union Home Minister is seeking re-election from Lucknow, while his colleague at the Centre Smriti Irani is again taking on Rahul Gandhi in Amethi.
In the Faizabad parliamentary constituency, under which the temple town of Ayodhya falls, sitting BJP MP Lallu Singh is taking on Nirmal Khatri of the Congress. Khatri is a former Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee chief.
Former Union minister and Congress candidate Jitin Prasad is contesting from Dhaurahra against former Chambal brigand Malkhan Singh.
In Lucknow, the SP has pitted Poonam Sinha, wife of actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha, as the joint 'mahagathbandhan' candidate against the Union home minister.
Madhya Pradesh
An average 29.76 per cent polling was recorded till noon in seven Lok Sabha seats of Madhya Pradesh on Monday.
Polling was underway since 7am in the seven constituencies—Tikamgarh, Damoh, Khajuraho, Satna, Rewa, Hoshangabad and Betul.
Long queues of voters were seen at some polling booths, the official said. Voting figures till noon were as follows: Tikamgarh 28.81 per cent, Damoh- 28.23 per cent, Khajuraho- 29.73 per cent, Satna- 28.25 per cent, Rewa- 28.13 per cent, Hoshangabad- 31.14 per cent and Betul- 33.14 per cent.
All these seats are currently held by the BJP.
Polling was going on peacefully across the seven seats, state's chief electoral officer V L Kantha Rao said. "Minor issues related to EVMs were reported at some places but they were sorted out," he added.
Union minister Virendra Singh Khatik and BJP MP Prahlad Patel are among the 110 candidates in the fray. This is the second phase of polling in Madhya Pradesh.
Lok Sabha elections for 29 seats in the state are being held in four phases.
Polling for six seats was held in the first phase on April 29, while eight seats each will go to polls on May 12 and 19.
Jharkhand
An estimated 29.49 per cent of the 65.87 lakh electorate cast their votes till 11am in Jharkhand, where the second phase of polling is underway in four Lok Sabha constituencies, an election official said.
No untoward incident has been reported from any part of the four constituencies—Koderma, Ranchi, Khunti (ST) and Hazaribag, the official said.
Koderma recorded a turnout of 30.80 per cent, followed by Ranchi at 30.05 per cent, Hazaribag at 29.05 per cent and Khunti(ST) at 27.21 per cent, he said.
Prominent candidates in the fray include Union Minister Jayant Sinha, former chief ministers Arjun Munda and Babulal Marandi, former union minister Subodh Kant Sahay and ex-MLA Kalicharan Munda.
Of the 65,87,028 electorate, 31,44,679 are female and 83 belong to the third gender.
The Election Commission has appointed 39,909 polling personnel and 1,191 micro observers for the polling.
Rajasthan
Nearly 30 per cent turnout was recorded in the first four hours of polling on Monday in 12 Lok Sabha seats of Rajasthan where two former Olympians are among the 124 candidates in fray.
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The maximum voter turnout of 31.93 per cent was in Ganganagar (SC) seat while Nagaur, Dausa, Churu and Alwar registered 30.34, 30.04, 30.02 and 30.01 per cent voting.
Polling began at 7 am in Ganganagar, Bikaner, Churu, Jhunjhunu, Sikar, Jaipur rural, Jaipur, Alwar, Bharatpur, Karauli-Dholpur, Dausa and Nagaur.
16 of the total 134 candidates are women. 23,783 polling stations have been set up in 12 constituencies where 2.30 crore voters are registered.
Two former Olympians, a former IAS officer and a former IPS officer are among the candidates whose fate will be decided by voters.
Jaipur rural, Bikaner, Dausa, Alwar are some of the keenly watched constituencies among the 12 seats.
Former Olympians Rajyavardhan Rathore, union minister of state, and Krishna Poonia are in contest in Jaipur rural constituency.
While the sitting MP Rathore is banking on the Modi factor and highlighted national security as the key issue, Congress MLA Poonia questioned works done by Rathore.
The seat, which Rathore won with a margin of 3.32 lakh votes in 2014, is dominated by Jat community, a caste to which Poonia belongs.
Union minister Arjun Ram Meghwal is facing a tough fight from his cousin brother and Congress candidate Madangopal Meghwal in Bikaner.
Arjun Ram is a former IAS officer while Madangopal Meghwal is a former IPS officer.
Nagaur is the seat where BJP's alliance partner and former BJP leader Hanuman Beniwal, the founder of Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP), is contesting election against Congress candidate and former MP Jyoti Mirdha.
Two 'sants', Sumedhanand Saraswati and Baba Balaknath, are trying their luck from Sikar and Alwar constituencies respectively. In Alwar, Congress candidate and former union minister and ex-royal Bhanwar Jitendra Singh is in the poll fight.
In Dausa, both the BJP and Congress candidates are women. BJP has fielded former MP Jaskaru Meena against Congress candidate Savita Meena, the wife of sitting Congress MLA Murari Meena.
Rajasthan has a total of 25 Lok Sabha seats and 13 of them went to poll on April 29.
