Voting for the fourth phase of the Lok Sabha elections begins
Voting on 96 seats spread across 10 states and Union Territories for the fourth phase of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections officially started at 7 AM today. With so many high-profile candidates in the race, attention will be focused on West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh.
Lok Sabha Elections: 10.35 pc voter turnout recorded till 9 am, polling underway in 96 constituencies
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Elections are being held simultaneously on 28 legislative assembly seats in Odisha and all 175 assembly seats in Andhra Pradesh.
Polling is currently underway in ten states and Union Territories— Andhra Pradesh (25), Telangana (17), Uttar Pradesh (13), Maharashtra (11), Madhya Pradesh (8), West Bengal (8), Bihar (5), Jharkhand (4), Odisha (4), and Jammu and Kashmir (1).
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In addition, polls will also be held in the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat in Jammu and Kashmir. This is the Valley’s first election after the repeal of Article 370 in August 2019.
Waheed Para has been fielded from the People’s Democratic Party, and prominent Shia leader Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi is the nominee of the National Conference. Ashraf Mir has been fielded by the Apni Party, while the BJP has decided not to run.
Of these 96 seats, BJP-led NDA candidates are contesting from more than 40 seats which will be go to elections on Monday.
Key battles in the fourth phase of Lok Sabha elections
Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav is running from the Kannauj seat in one of the state’s key battles.
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Union Minister Ajay Misra Teni, whose son is an accused in the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence case is aiming for a hattrick from the seat.
Former cricketer Yusuf Pathan is a Trinamool Congress (TMC) candidate and is running against Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury in West Bengal. Mahua Moitra of the TMC is running for re-election from the Krishnanagar seat after being ousted from the Lok Sabha in the wake of cash-for-query accusations. She is up against the BJP’s Amrita Roy, a former princess.
Actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha is running for re-election from the Asansol seat, where he faces off against SS Ahluwalia, a seasoned member of the BJP. In the Bardhaman-Durgapur seat, former state chief of BJP Dilip Ghosh is running against Kirti Azad of the Trinamool Congress.
AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi is running for re-election from the Hyderabad seat in Andhra Pradesh. This time, Kompella Madhavi Latha, a BJP candidate, is his main rival.
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Trinamool Congress worker killed in Bengal
A crude bomb attack in Bengal, where violence has marred previous polling rounds, claimed the life of a Trinamool Congress worker. The event happened in the Bolpur Lok Sabha constituency just a few hours before the polls were due to start.
According to reports, the deceased was identified as Mintu Sheikh. As he was making his way home from his election work, he was attacked. After the incident, the TMC claimed that miscreants backed by the CPI (M) had attacked the party worker.
