India Elections 5th Phase: Seven states go to polls today

Elaborate arrangements have been made for peaceful conduct of fifth phase of Lok Sabha elections today. Fifty one constituencies, spread over seven states, will go to polls in this phase.

Voting will take place for 14 seats in Uttar Pradesh; 12 in Rajasthan; seven each in Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal; five in Bihar, four in Jharkhand and two in Jammu and Kashmir.

Suspected militants shot dead a local leader of Modi’s ruling party in Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday night.

The militants opened fire on Gul Mohammad Mir, who belonged to a local unit of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), at his house in south Kashmir.

Kashmir police called it a “terror crime” and Modi condemned Mir’s killing in a Twitter post yesterday, saying “there is no place for such violence in our country.”

A polling station to be used in today’s voting was set ablaze in the nearby Shopian ar-ea, reported AFP.

In Uttar Pradesh, polling parties were sent to their respective booths under tight securi-ty. The constituencies which will go to polls include Lucknow, Raebareili, Amethi, Banda, Fatehpur, Kaushambhi, Barabanki, Faizabad, Behraich, Kaisarganj, Dhau-rahra, Sitapur, Mohanlalganj and Gonda. There are more than three lakh thirty nine thousand new voters in this phase.

The key contestants in the state are senior BJP leader and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Congress President Rahul Gandhi, BJP leader Smriti Zubin Irani, Congress leader and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi,  Congress leader Jitin Prassad and SP’s Poonam Sinha, wife of Shatrughan Sinha.

SP-BSP- RLD Alliance has not fielded its candidates in Amethi and Raebareli.

In Bihar, Indo-Nepal border has been sealed and strict vigil is being maintained to avert untoward incidents in the elections. Voting will be held in five Parliamentary constitu-encies including Sitamarhi, Madhubani, Muzaffarpur, Saran and Hajipur.

In Rajasthan, 12 parliamentary constituencies are going to polls in the fifth Phase to-day. Polling will begin at 7:00 am and continue till 6:00 pm. Political fate of 134 candi-dates will be decided in this state today.

In West Bengal, more than 13,000 polling stations have been set up. Major candidates in the fray include former railway minister and Trinamool Congress nominee Dinesh Trivedi, BJP’s  Arjun Singh, former Arjun awarders footballer, Prasun Banerjee and Ratna Dey Nag of Trinamool Congress.

In Madhya Pradesh, seven parliamentary constituencies will go to polls today.

In this phase, about one crore 20 lakh voters will decide the fate of 110 candidates, in-cluding nine women.

In Jammu and Kashmir’s high altitude constituency of Ladakh, BJP is trying to retain the seat by fielding the Leh Hill Council Chief Executive Councillor Jamyang Tsering Namgyal. The Congress has given ticket to the council’s former CEC Rigzin Spalbar.

Election to 542 Lok Sabha seats is being conducted in seven phases between April 11 and May 19. Results will be declared on May 23.