New Delhi, May 25 (IANS): Voting began at 7 a.m. on Saturday for the penultimate phase of the Lok Sabha polls with over 11 crore voters in 58 seats across eight states/UTs eligible to seal the fate of the 889 candidates in the fray.
Polling is being held in all the 10 seats in Haryana and seven constituencies in Delhi, eight seats in Bihar, four in Jharkhand, six in Odisha, 14 in UP, and eight seats in West Bengal, apart from the Anantnag-Rajouri constituency in Jammu and Kashmir, where the election was deferred from the third phase on May 7.
Voting for 42 seats of the Odisha Assembly is also being held in the state's third phase of simultaneous polling.
Among the prominent BJP candidates in this phase are Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan from Odisha's Sambalpur, former Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar from Karnal, late Union Minister Sushma Swaraj's daughter Bansuri Swaraj making her electoral debut from New Delhi, former Union Minister Maneka Gandhi from UP's Sultanpur, and former Calcutta High Court judge Abhijit Gangophadhyay from West Bengal's Tamluk.
Kumari Selja from Haryana's Sirsa, Raj Babbar from Gurgaon, former JNUSU chief Kanhaiya Kumar from North East Delhi (all Congress), PDP President and former J&K Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti from Anantnag-Rajouri, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav's cousin Dharmendra Yadav from UP's Azamgarh and actor-politician Deepak 'Dev' Adhikari of the Trinamool Congress from West Bengal's Ghatal are also in the fray.
The Election Commission said that 11.4 lakh polling officials have been deployed to facilitate voting by 11.13 crore voters - 5.84 crore male, 5.29 crore female and 5,120 third-gender - across 1.14 lakh polling stations.
In view of the soaring temperatures, the poll panel said that CEOs and state machinery concerned have been directed to take adequate measures to manage the adverse impact of hot weather or rainfall wherever predicted, while assured minimum facilities like shade, water, toilets, volunteers, and wheelchairs have been arranged.
The Election Commission has called upon voters to turn out in greater numbers, with the electorate of urban centres like Delhi, Gurugram, and Faridabad especially reminded about their right and duty to vote and break the trend of urban apathy.
With this phase, Delhi, Haryana, and J&K will join the 25 states/UTs where polling has already been concluded in the earlier five phases and contests will be over in 486 constituencies.