The mammoth national election is now in its final lap and 64 constituencies in seven states are voting today in the last but one round of polling. At the end of today, 92% voting will have been completed.
Here's Your 10-Point Cheat-Sheet to This Phase:
Of the 64 seats where polling is being held, the BJP had won only five in 2009. The Congress had won 34 and faces the uphill task of trying to retain its seats in the face of a resurgent Narendra Modi-led BJP, which is expected to win the maximum number of seats in this national election.
Mr Modi's party is hoping to make big gains in Uttar Pradesh, where polling is being held in 15 seats today. The Congress had won seven of these last time, the BJP none. This time the Congress is said to have a tough fight even in Amethi, which Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi has been winning since 2004 by humongous margins is seen as one of its safest seats in the country. (Amethi Decides Today Whether to Abort Support to Gandhis )
Rahul Gandhi visited Amethi early this morning, in what is being seen as an acknowledgment of the fact that he faces his toughest electoral challenge ever. In the last hours of campaigning on Monday, the BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi landed in Amethi and declared that his party's candidate, popular actor Smriti Irani, was in the Gandhi bastion to win. Also contesting is Kumar Vishwas of the Aam Aadmi Party, who has camped here for months. (Rahul Visits Amethi on Polling Day, Rebuts Modi on 'Neech Rajniti' Row )
The Seemandhra regions, which will form the downsized Andhra Pradesh starting next month, are voting to pick 25 members of Parliament and 175 state law-makers in what is seen as a contest between Chandrababu Naidu of the Telugu Desam Party and Jagan Mohan Reddy, chief of the YSR Congress, for the post of chief minister. Both also want the biggest share of the Lok Sabha seats to play a role in national politics. ('Will Make a Clean Sweep', Says Jagan as Seemandhra Votes)
The BJP, led by Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, hopes its alliance with Mr Naidu will help it add crucial numbers to its seats in Parliament as it makes a flat-out attempt to unseat the Congress at the Centre. The ruling Congress, which had in 2009 won 19 of the 25 seats in the region and also formed government in Andhra Pradesh, is expected to be punished for its decision to bifurcate it to create a Telangana state. The Seemandhra regions have been bitterly opposed to the split the state.
Six crucial seats in Bengal vote today, all held by the Left Front which is struggling to keep Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress from taking them away. In the fray today are some top celebrities - actors Moonmoon Sen and Sandhya Roy and popular singer Babul Supriyo, who is a BJP candidate. Nine-time MP Basudeb Acharia of the CPI(M) tries his luck one more time.
In Bihar, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar faces the ignominy of being seen as out of the frame in the seven constituencies that are voting. His Janata Dal (United) had won four of the seven in 2009, but that was before he split with the BJP, a decision that is expected to boomerang. Today's Bihar contest is being fought between the BJP and Lalu Prasad's Rashtriya Janata Dal. In Saran, the seat Lalu had to vacate when he was convicted in a corruption case, his wife Rabri Devi is fighting for his honour against the BJP's Rajiv Pratap Rudy. (Eighth phase of polling: In Bihar, it's Lalu vs the BJP)
Elections are also being held in the hill states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party has fielded candidates in some of the seats in these states in an attempt to break the stranglehold of the BJP and the Congress which are largely locked in direct contests as always. Himachal Pradesh has four seats, Uttarakhand has five.
Polling is also being held in two constituencies of Jammu and Kashmir - Baramulla and Ladakh. With this, elections will be completed in all seven constituencies of the state.
The staggered, nine-phase elections, which began on April 7, will draw to a close on May 12. Results of the huge exercise, the largest election in recent history, will be declared on May 16.
