- Friday, January 24, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
FIFTY-SEVEN constituencies across seven states and the Union Territory (UT) of Chandigarh will go to polls in the seventh and final phase of India’s general elections on Saturday (1) that include Varanasi, from where prime minister Narendra Modi is seeking his third consecutive term.
Polling is scheduled in all 13 seats of the northern state of Punjab and four of Himachal Pradesh; 13 constituencies in India’s most populous state of Uttar Pradesh; nine in the eastern state of West Bengal and 17 in its neighbours Bihar (eight), Odisha (six) and Jharkhand (three).
Besides, polling for the 42 assembly constituencies of Odisha and bypolls to six assembly seats in Himachal Pradesh will also take place simultaneously during the day.
Other prominent candidates among 904 contestants in fray in the phase are sports minister Anurag Thakur and Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut, among others. Both Thakur and Ranaut are contesting from the northern state of Himachal Pradesh — Hamirpur and Mandi seats, respectively.
Read: PM Modi meditates in Kanyakumari after poll campaign ends; WATCH
More than 100 million citizens, including more than 52 million men and 48 million women and 3,574 third gender electors are eligible to vote in this phase.
Saturday’s voting will mark the end to the marathon polling process that began on April 19 month and has already covered 486 parliamentary seats in 28 states and UTs.
The assemblies of the states of Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim also went to polls.
Counting of votes will be taken up on June 4.
According to guidelines of the Election Commission of India, television channels and news outlets will be able to run exit poll data and its results on June 1 after 6.30 pm local time, half an hour after the election concludes.
The commission said polling parties have been dispatched along with machines and poll materials to their respective polling stations. At 109,000 polling stations where voting will be held on Saturday, basic facilities including ample shade, drinking water, ramps, and toilets are being provided to ensure that polling takes place in a comfortable and secure environment, it said.
The poll panel has also directed CEOs and state machineries to take adequate measures to manage the adverse impact of hot weather or rainfall wherever predicted.
The commission called upon voters to turn out in greater numbers and vote with responsibility and pride.
The turnout in the first six phases was 66.14 per cent, 66.71, 65.68, 69.16, 62.2 and 63.36, per cent respectively.
The results will be announced on June 4.
(With PTI inputs)
