Elections 2019 Phase 7: Nearly 11% Voter Turnout Till 9 am In PM Modi's Constituency
Varanasi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's parliamentary constituency, recorded 10.87 per cent voting till 9 am - the first two hours of polling in the seventh and final phase of the 2019 general elections.
Varanasi will see 18.54 lakh registered votes cast their vote in 1,819 polling booths, of which 273 are categorised as ''critical''.
Local administration has set up 145 model booths and one pink booth which will be operated only by women.
Authorities have appealed to people to come out in large numbers to cast votes in Varanasi, which had reported 58.35 per cent polling in 2014.
There are five assembly segments in Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency. These are - Rohaniya, Varanasi North, Varanasi South, Varanasi Cantonment, and Sevapuri.
PM Modi's challengers are Congress's Ajay Rai and SP-BSP gathbandhan candidate Shalini Yadav.
In 2014, PM Modi had defeated Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal by a margin of 3.37 lakh.
Last time, PM Modi had got 56.37 per cent votes out of the total polled and there was a swing of 25.85 per cent votes in his favour from 2009, when compared Murli Manohar Joshi, who had got 30.5 per cent votes for the BJP.
In 2009, the Samajwadi Party and BSP contested separately, their combined vote share was 46.6 per cent which was more that of the BJP.