New Delhi:
India's mammoth general election comes to a close today with voting in 41 constituencies across three states, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Bihar.
Here is a look at top five contests today:
The biggest battle of this phase, and this election, is playing out at Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, where BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, has been challenged by Arvind Kejriwal, the chief of the fledgling Aam Aadmi Party. The Congress has fielded local candidate Ajai Rai.
The other key seat in Uttar Pradesh is Azamgarh, which has drawn attention for a number of terror-linked arrests, which have disenchanted its Muslim population in recent years. Mulayam Singh Yadav, the Samajwadi Party chief, is fighting what is seen as a prestige battle here. He is up against sitting BJP MP, Ramakant Yadav.
Among 17 seats voting in West Bengal is Kolkata North, which is witnessing an interesting four-way contest between former union minister Sudip Bandyopadhyay of the Trinamool Congress, Somen Mitra of the Congress, Rupa Bagchi of the CPM and Rahul Sinha of the BJP.
Another prominent contest in Bengal is in Barasat, where Trinamool's Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar is facing a challenge from magician PC Sorcar, fielded by the BJP.
In Barrackpore, again in West Bengal, Trinamool's Dinesh Trivedi is contesting against Left's Subhashini Ali.
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