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Journalism of Courage
Votes will be cast Saturday in 57 parliamentary constituencies spread across eight states and a Union Territory in the seventh and last phase of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, bringing to an end polling in what has been the second-longest elections after the first in 1951-52.
As the polls close, all eyes will be on the exit polls Saturday evening and the results on June 4.
The last phase will see voting for all 13 seats in Punjab and all four seats in Himachal Pradesh. The other states that will vote are Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal — polling spans all seven phases — and Jharkhand and Odisha. The Union Territory of Chandigarh too will vote Saturday.
Voting for Assembly polls in Odisha will be completed Saturday — Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim, which are also electing new Assemblies, have already completed the polling process.
The 57 seats include Varanasi, represented by Prime Minister Narendra Modi; Diamond Harbour, the seat of TMC general secretary and sitting MP Abhishek Banerjee; Bathinda, represented by former Union Minister and SAD MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal; Patna Sahib, the constituency of former Union Minister and BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad; and, Mandi where Himachal Pradesh minister Vikramaditya Singh of the Congress is up against actor Kangana Ranaut who is contesting on a BJP ticket.
In 2019, the parties constituting the Opposition INDIA bloc and the ruling BJP-led NDA won 19 and 30 of these 57 seats, respectively. The BJP alone won 25 of these constituencies. Among the INDIA bloc members, the TMC and the Congress won the most seats with nine and eight, respectively.
Several unaligned parties also bagged several constituencies: the BJD won four seats in Odisha, the BSP got two in UP, and the SAD two in Punjab.
In terms of vote share, the parties that constitute NDA received 39.03% of the votes compared to the 37.52% vote share of the INDIA bloc parties.
A total of 904 candidates are in the fray Saturday. The BSP has fielded the most candidates at 56, followed by the BJP with 51, and the Congress 31. With all of Punjab voting, the state has the most candidates in this phase with 328, followed by 144 candidates for 13 seats in UP, 134 for 8 seats in Bihar, and 124 for 9 seats in West Bengal.
The Election Commission, in a press release on the eve of the last phase, said: “Polling parties have been dispatched along with machines and poll materials to their respective polling stations. Polling stations are ready to welcome the voters with all basic facilities including ample shade, drinking water, ramps, and toilets to ensure that polling takes place in a comfortable and secure environment… CEOs and State machineries have been directed to take adequate measures to manage the adverse impact of hot weather or rainfall wherever predicted.”
“In spite of hot weather conditions, voters have turned up in huge numbers at the polling stations in the past phases. In the last two phases, female voter turnout percentage has surpassed male voter turnout. The Commission has called upon voters to turn out in greater numbers at polling stations and vote with responsibility and pride,” the EC said.
