LIVE | West Bengal leads with 73% voter turnout; Maharashtra at bottom with 49%

Maharashtra: Polling begins for 13 Lok Sabha seats

Polling has begun for 13 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra, including six in Mumbai, in the fifth and last phase of general elections in the state, an official said.

Voting began at 7 am in 24,553 polling centres and will end at 6 pm, the official said.

Altogether 2.46 crore persons are eligible to cast vote to decide the fate of 264 candidates in Mumbai North, Mumbai North Central, Mumbai North West, Mumbai North East, Mumbai South Central, Mumbai South, Thane, Kalyan, Bhiwandi, Palghar, Nashik, Dindori and Dhule seats.

Union ministers Piyush Goyal , Bharati Pawar and Kapil Patil are among the key nominees of the BJP, which has also fielded lawyer Ujjwal Nikam.

Shiv Sena’s Shrikant Shinde and Mumbai Congress chief Varsha Gaikwad are also in the fray.

The main contest is between the ruling Mahayuti comprising the Shiv Sena, BJP and NCP, and the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance comprising Shiv Sena (UBT), Congress and NCP (SP).

Mumbai, Thane and Palghar where 10 of the 13 seats are located are in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, one of the most urbanized pockets in the country.

Altogether 2,46,69,544 persons are eligible to cast vote, including 1,31,38,526 men, 1,15,28,278 women and 2,740 from the third gender.

The Shiv Sena led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has fielded its candidates in Mumbai South, Mumbai North West, and Mumbai South Central seats, while the ruling BJP has put up candidates in Mumbai North, Mumbai North Central and Mumbai North East constituencies.

The opposition Shiv Sena (UBT) led by former CM Uddhav Thackeray has put up candidates in Mumbai South, Mumbai South Central, Mumbai North East and Mumbai North West as part of the MVA seat-sharing deal.

Congress candidates are in the fray in Mumbai North Central and Mumbai North in the metropolis.

Thane and Kalyan, where the rival Senas are pitted against each other, are prestige battles for Shinde as they fall under his political turf. His son Shrikant Shinde and close aide Naresh Mhaske are the Shiv Sena nominees in Kalyan and Thane.

The contest is between BJP and Shiv Sena (UBT) in Palghar, while BJP and NCP (SP) are the main contenders in the textile manufacturing hub of Bhiwandi.

Dhule is witnessing a BJP versus Congress fight. In Dindori, it is BJP versus Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP), while the two Senas are facing off in Nashik.

The Mumbai police have deployed around 30,000 personnel to ensure smooth voting in the city, an official said. They include 2,752 officers and 27,460 other personnel, including from three units of the riot control police.

Of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra, polling in 35 seats was held in four phases on April 19, April 26, May 7 and May 13. Votes will be counted on June 4.

In the last four phases, the average voter turnout was 62.9 per cent, an election official said. In 2019 elections, the average for these constituencies was 62.5 per cent, he added. 

Polling begins for 14 seats in UP

Voting for the fifth phase of Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh covering 14 Lok Sabha constituencies, which will decide the fate of five Union ministers, including Rajnath Singh and Smriti Irani, and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, began on Monday morning.

Voting will also take place for the assembly bypoll to Lucknow East assembly constituency.

The Election Commission said voting will be held from 7 am to 6 pm.

The seats going to polls in the fifth phase are Lucknow, Mohanlalganj (SC), Rae Bareli, Amethi, Jalaun (SC), Jhansi, Hamirpur, Banda, Fatehpur, Kaushambi (SC), Barabanki (SC), Faizabad, Kaisarganj and Gonda.

Besides Defence Minister Singh (Lucknow) and Minister for Women and Child Development Irani (Amethi), those in the fray are Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Kaushal Kishor (Mohanlalganj), Minister of State for Consumer Affairs Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti (Fatehpur) and Union Minister of State for MSME Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma (Jalaun).

Rahul Gandhi is in the fray from Rae Bareli, which was represented by his mother and former Congress president Sonia Gandhi earlier.

Over 2.71 crore voters are eligible to exercise their voting rights on Monday and 144 candidates are in the fray.

The BJP gave tickets to 11 of its sitting Lok Sabha MPs in this phase, while it has fielded new candidates in Barabanki (SC) seat and Kaisarganj.

For the INDIA bloc, the Congress has fielded K L Sharma from Amethi, Tanuj Punia from Barabanki (SC) and Pradeep Jain 'Aditya' from Jhansi. Samajwadi Party (SP) candidates are in the poll fray on the rest of the seats.

Defence Minister Singh is eyeing a fourth term from Lucknow. He is pitted against sitting SP MLA Ravidas Mehrotra from Lucknow Central.

Union minister Irani has been fielded from the neighbouring Amethi constituency.

In Kaisarganj Lok Sabha seat, the contest is between BJP's Karan Bhushan Singh, son of former MP and ex-president of Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, and SP's Bhagat Ram.

Faizabad Lok Sabha seat, which covers the temple town of Ayodhya, will see a contest between sitting BJP MP Lallu Singh, who is seeking a hat-trick, and Awadhesh Prasad, the SP MLA from Milkipur (SC) assembly constituency in Ayodhya district.

In Hamirpur, the poll contest is between BJP's Kunwar Pushpendra Singh Chandel, eyeing a third term, and SP's Ajendra Singh Lodhi.

In Gonda, BJP's Kirti Vardhan Singh, who is eyeing a fifth term, is up against SP's Shreya Verma.

The electoral contest in Banda is between RK Singh Patel, who is seeking a third term, and Krishna Devi Shivshankar Patel of the SP.

Vinod Kumar Sonkar, who is eyeing a hat-trick of wins, will be facing SP's Pushpendra Saroj, son of SP leader Indrajeet Saroj, for Kaushambi (SC) constituency.

Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma is eyeing a sixth term and is pitted against Narayan Das Ahirwar of the SP in Jalaun.

Voting will also take place for the assembly bypoll to Lucknow East assembly constituency. A bypoll in the constituency was necessitated following the death of sitting MLA Ashutosh Tandon on November 9, 2023.

Bihar: Voting begins for 5 LS seats amid tight security

Voting for five Lok Sabha seats in Bihar began amid tight security arrangements on Monday, a senior election official said.

Polling commenced at 7 am in Muzaffarpur, Madhubani, Sitamarhi, Saran and Hajipur constituencies and will continue till 6 pm, the official at the CEO office said.

Over 95 lakh voters in the five seats will decide the electoral fate of 80 candidates at 9,436 polling stations.

Of the total voters, 45.11 lakh are women, while 21 lakh are under 29 years of age and 1.26 lakh are in the age group of 18-19 years.

Notable contestants include NDA ally Chirag Paswan in Hajipur, Lalu Prasad’s daughter Rohini Acharya, who is pitted against two-term sitting BJP MP and former Union minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy in Saran, and Muzaffarpur’s sitting MP Ajay Nishad, who crossed over to the Congress after being denied a BJP ticket for a third term.

Sudhir Kumar Ojha, an advocate who remains in the news for his petitions against top political figures, Bollywood stars and even foreign heads of state, is contesting from Muzaffarpur.

Polling begins for 3 LS seats in Jharkhand

Polling for three Lok Sabha seats in Jharkhand began on Monday morning, marking the second phase of elections in the state and fifth nationally, officials said.

Voting began at 7 am in Chatra, Koderma and Hazaribag seats, and will continue till 5 pm.

In this phase, 22 candidates are contesting from Chatra, 15 from Koderma, and 17 from Hazaribag.

Approximately 58.34 lakh voters, including 28.35 lakh women, are eligible to exercise their franchise in these three constituencies.

Voting also began for the Gandey assembly by-poll in the state.

Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) K Ravi Kumar said this phase covers seven districts across three parliamentary constituencies, with polling materials and parties dispatched to 65 interior booths via choppers.

Kumar noted that there are a total of 6,705 booths, including 6,130 in rural areas, with 73 booths managed by women, 13 by persons with disabilities, and 13 by youths.

In Chatra parliamentary constituency, there are 16.89 lakh voters, including 8.27 lakh female electors, with 1,899 booths. Koderma has 22.05 lakh electors, including 10.65 lakh women, with 2,552 booths, while Hazaribagh constituency has 19.39 lakh voters, including 9.42 lakh women, and 2,254 booths.

Since the implementation of the Model Code of Conduct, illegal items and cash worth Rs 121.91 crore have been seized in the state.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP won all three seats.

Campaigning for the second phase of elections in the state saw the intense exchange of words between BJP and Congress over issues like corruption, reservation, Constitution and poll promises. 

Polling begins in Jammu and Kashmir's Baramulla LS seat

Polling has started in Jammu and Kashmir’s Baramulla Lok Sabha constituency where 22 candidates, including former chief minister Omar Abdullah, are in the fray, officials said.

Voting began at 7 am. People were seen lining up outside the polling stations to exercise their franchise in some areas of the constituency, the officials said.

The constituency is spread over 18 assembly segments in the three districts of Kupwara, Baramulla and Bandipora, and also includes two segments of Budgam that were included on the recommendations of the delimitation commission two years ago, they said.

Voting is scheduled to end at 6 pm.

More than 500 centenarians are among the 17.37 lakh voters eligible to exercise their franchise, with political observers expecting a high turnout on the back of the huge crowds that thronged election rallies and roadshows.

The first major political battle post the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019 will decide the fate of Abdullah, the National Conference vice-president, and 21 others in the fray.

Fourteen Independent candidates -- two of whom are women -- are among the hopefuls from the north Kashmir seat, which has traditionally returned a higher turnout compared to areas in central and south Kashmir.

Abdullah faces the biggest challenge from separatist-turned-politician and former minister Sajad Lone, who heads the People's Conference.

However, it is the presence of jailed Awami Ittehad Party leader and former MLA Abdul Rashid Sheikh alias Engineer Rashid that has spiced up the contest.

The People's Democratic Party has fielded former Rajya Sabha member Mir Mohammad Fayaz while Muneer Khan, the brother of jailed separatist leader Nayeem Ahmad Khan, is contesting as an Independent.

In 2019, the constituency recorded 34.17 per cent polling with Kupwara district registering the highest turnout at 51.7 per cent, followed by Bandipora at 31.8 per cent and Baramulla at 24 per cent.

The officials said there are 8,75,831 (8.75 lakh) male and 8,62,000 (8.62 lakh) female voters, besides 34 from the third gender. More than 17,000 voters are persons with disabilities. There are 527 persons above the age of 100 who are eligible to exercise their franchise.

More than 8,000 polling staff, including reserves, have been deployed at 2,103 polling stations to ensure smooth conduct of the polls, the officials said and added that 28 polling stations are located in the border areas of Kupwara and Baramulla districts.

There are 18 polling booths managed by women, 17 manned by specially-abled persons and 18 by youngsters. To spread messages on the environment, the authorities have also set up 21 green polling booths. 

Polling begins for 7 LS constituencies in Bengal

Polling for the fifth phase of Lok Sabha polls commenced across seven parliamentary constituencies of West Bengal amid tight security on Monday, an official said.

Voting commenced in Bangaon (SC), Barrackpore, Howrah, Uluberia, Sreerampur, Hooghly, and Arambag (SC) Lok Sabha constituencies at 7 am and will continue till 6 pm.

A total of 1,25,23,702 voters, comprising 63,51,320 men, 61,72,034 women, and 348 belonging to the third gender, are eligible to exercise their franchise across 13,481 polling stations.

The Election Commission has designated over 57 per cent of the polling stations as sensitive and deployed over 60,000 personnel of central forces, in addition to around 30,000 policemen.

The number of security forces deployed for this phase surpasses that of any of the four earlier phases in the state.

A total of 88 candidates are contesting in the fifth phase, with the highest number of 15 candidates in Bongaon, where Union Minister Shantanu Thakur is contesting against TMC's Biswajit Das.

Polling for 5 Lok Sabha, 35 assembly seats begins in Odisha amid tight security

Polling for five Lok Sabha constituencies and 35 assembly seats in Odisha began amid tight security on Monday, officials said.

Voting commenced at 7 am in Aska, Kandhamal, Bolangir, Bargarh, and Sundargarh parliamentary constituencies, along with 35 assembly segments within these Lok Sabha seats.

Approximately 79.69 lakh voters are eligible to cast their ballots at 9,162 booths located across 7,339 locations.

Polling will continue till 6 pm, with adjustments in certain remote and Maoist-affected areas where voting will conclude earlier, the officials said.

Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) N B Dhal assured that adequate arrangements have been made for voters' convenience.

"Over 79.69 lakh electors are eligible to vote, with 40 candidates contesting for the five Lok Sabha seats and 265 contestants vying for 35 assembly segments," he said.

Prominent leaders whose electoral fate will be decided include Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who is contesting from two assembly segments (Hinjili in Ganjam district and Kantabanji in Bolangir district), six Odisha ministers, BJP MPs Sangeeta Singh Deo and Jual Oram, and former Indian hockey skipper Dilip Tirkey.

Dhal said around 60,000 polling personnel engaged in this phase of voting had reached their destinations by Sunday afternoon. 

#WATCH | Bihar: Women queue up in large numbers at a polling booth in Muzaffarpur as they wait for voting to begin. #LokSabhaElections2024 pic.twitter.com/AgOrKHB8FX

— ANI (@ANI) May 20, 2024