Lok Sabha Polls: Voting for Phase 5 begins
Polling for the fifth phase of the Lok Sabha elections is now taking place in 49 constituencies across six states and two union territories. Many important leaders, including former Congress President Rahul Gandhi, Union Ministers Rajnath Singh and Smriti Irani, and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, will have their electoral fates decided in this round.
Of the 49 seats up for election today, 13 are in Maharashtra, 14 in Uttar Pradesh, seven in Bengal, five in Bihar and Odisha, three in Jharkhand, and one each in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
There are 695 contenders running for the 49 seats up for grabs, 82 of whom are female. Voters are being urged to cast more ballots by the Election Commission of India (ECI), which is concerned about the poor turnout in the previous four stages.
The focus of this phase of polling is centered on Congress strongholds Amethi and Raebareli, where Rahul Gandhi and Smriti Irani are in high-profile elections. Rahul Gandhi faces BJP’s Dinesh Pratap Singh in Raebareli, while Irani faces Congress loyalist Kishori Lal Sharma.
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Several Bollywood celebrities and other prominent personalities were photographed voting in Mumbai, including actor Akshay Kumar, film director Zoya Akhtar, actor-filmmaker Farhan Akhtar, actor Jahnvi Kapoor, and Reliance Group chairman and MD Anil Ambani, among others.
PM Narendra Modi urged voters across these 49 seats to “vote in record numbers”. “I specially call upon women voters and young voters to exercise their franchise,” he tweeted.
High profile names in Phase 5
Union Ministers Piyush Goyal (Mumbai North), Rajnath Singh (Lucknow), Smriti Irani (Amethi), Chirag Paswan (Hajipur), BJP’s Locket Chatterjee (Hooghly), BJD President and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah (Baramulla), and Congress’s Tsering Namgyal, among others, are among the prominent candidates in the fifth phase of the Lok Sabha elections.
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Security beefed up for elections in Bengal
Security has been increased in seven Bengal constituencies with a history of poll-related violence, with more than 57% of polling stations recognized as sensitive in this phase, the highest figure so far in this Lok Sabha election. An official reported that over 60,000 central forces personnel and over 30,000 state police personnel had been dispatched.
