Voters queue up at a polling booth in Sreerampore, West Bengal
Today is the seventh of nine phases of voting in the general elections. Polling is being held in 89 seats across seven states and two union territories.
Here is your 10-point cheat sheet to phase 7
In simultaneous elections being held today, the Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh votes to elect 17 Lok Sabha MPs and also the 119 members of what will be its first assembly when it becomes a new state on June 2.
The Telangana Rashtra Samithi or TRS, which spearheaded the campaign for a separate state and the Congress, which leads the UPA government that fast-tracked the Telangana proposal, are seen as neck and neck in a contest over credit for the new state. The BJP, with partner Telugu Desam Party, is hoping for some goodwill too for having helped smoothly pass the Telangana bill in Parliament. (Telangana's first assembly election, big stakes for KCR)
All 26 constituencies in Gujarat, BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi's state, vote today. Mr Modi has won big mandates in state elections and will be counting on his Gujarat to send even more BJP MPs to parliament than the 15 it did in 2009. (Top 10 contests today)
Of the two seats Mr Modi is contesting, one is Vadodara in Gujarat. Also contesting elections today is the BJP's veteran LK Advani from Gandhinagar and both Congress president Sonia Gandhi from Rae Bareli and BJP president Rajnath Singh from Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh. (Also Read: LK Advani agrees to contest election from Gandhinagar)
The Congress, in its impressive tally of 22 seats from the state in 2009, had won six of the 14 UP seats that vote today. The Samajwadi Party had won four, the BSP three and the BJP only one. Under Narendra Modi, the BJP hopes to reverse those statistics. It's calculation that it could form government at the Centre this year is heavily predicated on winning a major chunk of UP's 80 seats. (India Votes 2014: full coverage)
Punjab too votes today in a single phase. This is one state where the BJP, along with its ally the Akali Dal, is struggling. The big contest is in Amritsar, where the BJP's 66-year-old chief strategist Arun Jaitley is contesting his first ever Lok Sabha election against the Congress' former chief minister Amrinder Singh, in what is seen as a very close fight.
West Bengal, where nine of 42 constituencies are voting, witnessed a high-decibel trade of allegations between Narendra Modi and chief minister Mamata Banerjee this week. Mr Modi hopes to gain some ground in West Bengal, a state where the BJP has had only minor presence so far. (Also Read: BJP hits back after Trinamool calls Modi 'butcher of Gujarat')
Elections are also being held for seven seats today in Bihar, another state crucial to the BJP's blueprint to win these elections. The party, forced to emerge from the shadow of partner Janata Dal United after a nasty break-up last year, is counting on what it calls the "Modi factor" and some strategic pre-poll alliances to win it a big haul here.
Of the 89 seats up for grabs today, the Congress had won 35 and the BJP 23, in 2009. This year the Congress, which has ruled at the Centre for the last decade, faces predictions that it could register its worst ever loss in these elections.
13.83 crore people have the right to vote today. Elections have already been held in 349 constituencies in the first six phases. There are 543 seats in the Lok Sabha to which elections are held.
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