Election 2019 Phase 6: Over 10.17 crore voters were eligible to vote across the 59 constituencies.
Highlights
- In 2014, the BJP had 45 of the 59 seats voting today
- Akhilesh Yadav, Harshvardhan, Gautam Gambhir, Atishi key contestants
- In Bhopal, Congress's Digvijaya Singh faces BJP's Pragya Thakur
Violence in Bengal and allegations of malfunctioning electronic voting machines in Delhi marked the sixth round of election, which took place for 59 seats across seven states. The overall turnout was 63.3 per cent. In Delhi, where voting took place for all seven Lok Sabha seats, the voting percentage was 60, down from 65.1 in the 2014 polls. In Bengal, a BJP candidate who earlier was a close aide of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, was heckled and her car was attacked with handmade bombs, allegedly by Trinamool Congress supporters. The Election Commission said she was seen taking photos inside a polling booth and has transferred the presiding officer.
Here's your 10-point cheat sheet to the national election Phase 6:
Voting was held in 14 seats in Uttar Pradesh, 10 in Haryana, seven in Delhi, four in Jharkhand and eight each in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal.
In Delhi, the Congress, the BJP and Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party are in the race for the seven Lok Sabha seats, with former-chief minister Sheila Dikshit, Union Minister Harshvardhan, former Olympian boxer Vijender Singh and cricketer-turned-politician Gautam Gambhir among key candidates.
In Bengal -- where the BJP has set itself a target of 23 of the state's 42 seats -- violence was reported from Midnapore, where former IPS officer Bharati Ghosh is taking on Trinamool Congress's sitting lawmaker, actor Dev. She was attacked, heckled and pushed to the ground at a polling station.
In Bengal's Purulia, clashes took place between the ruling Trinamool Congress and the BJP in Balarampur over allegations of booth capturing. The Central forces had to use batons to disperse the mob.
Aam Aadmi Party's Malviya Nagar legislator Somnath Bharti alleged that voting machines at three booths were not functioning. Delhi Chief Electoral Officer Ranbir Singh said 5.5 per cent EVMs were replaced in the morning and that the problems were reported from Chandni Chowk and West Delhi, news agency PTI reported.
Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, who walked to the polling booth at the high-profile New Delhi Parliamentary constituency, said after voting: "It was a good fight. Narendra Modi used hatred and I used love. And I think love will triumph. The people are our maalik (boss). We will accept the people's mandate."
In Uttar Pradesh, all eyes are on Phulpur and Gorakhpur - the strongholds of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his deputy KP Maurya, which proved a successful test case for the Mayawati-Akhilesh Yadav combine. The results had set the stage for a united opposition in the state and on a national level.
Akhilesh Yadav is contesting from Azamgarh, a Samajwadi Party stronghold, against the BJP's Dinesh Lal Yadav. His father Mulayam Singh Yadav had managed to win the seat by a margin of 60,000 votes in 2014, despite a landslide win for the BJP.
In Jharkhand, state minister Chandraprakash Choudhary, former cricketer Kirti Azad and former Chief Minister Madhu Koda's wife Gita are among the 67 candidates whose fate will be sealed in this phase of the elections. Polling is being held in Dhanbad, Giridih, Jamshedpur and Singhbhum, all won by the BJP in 2014.
Congress leader Digvijaya Singh faces the BJP's Pragya Thakur -- an accused in the Malegaon blasts case -- in Bhopal today. Digvijaya Singh had accepted the challenge to contest from the BJP stronghold on a dare from Chief Minister Kamal Nath. Bhopal has been with the BJP since 1989.
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