Varanasi-Chandigarh: The election battle that has been going on for the past one and a half months will end with voting on a total of 57 seats in the seventh and final phase of the Lok Sabha elections. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Varanasi seat is also included in these 57 seats. Apart from this, the fate of Anurag Thakur, Kangana Ranaut, Lalu's daughter Misa Bharti, Mamta's nephew Abhishek will also be decided in this meeting. A total of 10.06 crore people will vote in this election, including 5.24 crore male and 4.82 crore female voters. Voting will take place at a total of 1.09 lakh polling stations in the country.
The total 57 constituencies include 13 seats from Punjab, four seats from Himachal Pradesh, 13 seats from Uttar Pradesh, nine seats from West Bengal, eight from Bihar, six from Odisha and three from Jharkhand. Apart from this, one seat is also from Chandigarh. With the end of voting on Saturday, voting will end in 28 states and union territories.
Apart from this, voting will also be held for the remaining 42 assembly seats of Odisha. Along with this, assembly elections will also be held in Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim. As per the guidelines of the Election Commission, news channels and news outlets will be able to conduct exit polls after 6:30 pm on June 1.
The candidates contesting against PM Modi in Varanasi include Ajay Rai of Congress, Athar Jamal Lari of BSP, Kolisetty Shivakumar of Yug Tulsi Party, Gagan Prakash Yadav of Apandal (Kamerawadi), independent candidates Dinesh Kumar Yadav and Sanjay Kumar Tiwari. Apart from this, the fate of Union Minister Mahendra Nath Pandey, Pankaj Chaudhary and Anupriya Patel will also be captured in EVMs in Chandauli, Maharajganj and Mirzapur.
Voting will be held on 13 seats of 11 districts in Uttar Pradesh namely Maharajganj, Gorakhpur, Kushinagar, Deoria, Bansgaon, Ghosi, Salempur, Ballia, Ghazipur, Chandauli, Varanasi, Mirzapur, Robertsganj. Prime Minister Modi will contest from Varanasi for the third consecutive time. Apart from this, former Prime Minister Chandrashekhar's son Neeraj Shekhar is also contesting the elections.