All arrangements have been put in place
for the seventh and last phase of Lok Sabha elections.
59 constituencies, spread over 7 states and one union territory, will go
to the polls tomorrow.
Voting in this phase will take place for 13 seats each in Uttar Pradesh
and Punjab, nine in West Bengal, eight seats each in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh,
all four constituencies of Himachal Pradesh; three in Jharkhand and the lone
seat of Chandigarh.
Campaigning for 50 of the 59 seats going to the polls in this phase ended
last evening.
For 9 constituencies of West Bengal, campaigning closed on Thursday night
after the Election Commission curtailed it in the wake of violence during BJP
President Amit Shah’s roadshow in Kolkata on Tuesday.
In West Bengal, the 9 Lok Sabha seats are Dum Dum, Jadavpur, Barasat,
Basirhat, Joynagar, Mathurapur, Diamond Harbour, Kolkata South and Kolkata
North. More than 1 crore 49 lakhs electorates are eligible to cast their
franchise. Altogether 111 candidates are in the fray. More than 17 thousands of
polling booths have been set up.
Our Kolkata correspondent reports that the Election Commission has made
elaborate security arrangements to check violence during polling.
Prominent candidates in this phase include Prime Minister Narendra Modi,
and union ministers – Manoj Sinha, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Harsimrat Kaur Badal
and Hardeep Singh Puri.
The Fates of Kirron Kher, Sunny Deol and Ravi Kishan of the BJP, Sukhbir
Badal of the SAD, Meira Kumar and Shatrughan Sinha of the Congress and Shibu
Soren of the JMM will also be decided in this phase.
Polling, which begins at 7 AM, will end at 6 PM. Counting of votes for the
Lok Sabha and four state assemblies of Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal
Pradesh and Sikkim will be taken up on Thursday.