Seventh and last phase of LS elections on Saturday

The marathon Lok Sabha elections spread over seven phases comes to an end on Saturday with 57 constituencies spread over seven states and one Union Territory figuring in the last round of the gruelling exercise.

These include 13 seats each in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, 9 in West Bengal, 8 in Bihar, 6 in Odisha, 4 in Himachal Pradesh, 3 in Jharkhand, and one seat in the Union Territory of Chandigarh.

Besides these, 42 Assembly seats in Odisha will also go to the polls in this phase simultaneously.

A total of 904 candidates are in the fray for 57 Lok Sabha seats.

Voting is already over in 486 seats in 28 states and Union territories. The turnout in the first six phases was 66.14 per cent, 66.71, 65.68, 69.16, 62.2 and 63.36 per cent respectively. Counting of votes will be taken up on June 4.

The top leaders of various political parties have left no stone unturned to woo the voters.

At an election rally in Hoshiarpur (Punjab), Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused the Congress and the INDIA bloc of indulging in appeasement and vote-bank politics.

Modi said that for the sake of the vote bank, Congress continuously opposed the construction of the Ram Temple and also opposed the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). The Prime Minister said his government would not allow anyone to snatch away the reservations of Dalits, OBCs, and backward classes and give them only to Muslims.

BJP National President JP Nadda and
senior Aam Aadmi Party leader and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Maan too wooed the voters braving heatwave conditions in Punjab.

On Thursday, former prime minister Manmohan Singh accused Modi of lowering the dignity of public discourse and the gravity of the office of the prime minister by giving "hateful speeches" during the poll campaign.

In an appeal to voters of Punjab, Singh asserted that only the Congress can ensure growth-oriented progressive future where democracy and Constitution will be safeguarded. He also hit out at the BJP government for imposing the "ill-conceived" Agnipath scheme on the armed forces. 

In West Bengal, Modi took out a rally in Kolkata on Tuesday in support of candidate for Kolkata Uttar seat Tapas Roy. TMC supremo and Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also held rallies for party candidates almost in each of the nine Lok Sabha constituencies.

In Uttar Pradesh, Defence Minister and senior BJP leader Rajnath Singh and Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav toured various constituencies seeking votes for their respective parties.
 
Jharkhand BJP Chief Babulal Marandi and Chief Minister and JMM leader Champai Soren were busy in the tribal-dominated state, while in Bihar, BJP state president Samrat Choudhary held public meetings in poll-bound areas. Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Kumar Sinha held door-to-door campaign, while LJP (Ramvilas) Party Chief Chirag Paswan addressed public meetings in support of NDA candidates.

RJD chief Lalu Prasad held a roadshow and voter outreach programme in the Pataliputra constituency, where his daughter Misa Bharti is in the fray. RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav too addressed public meetings.

In Odisha, senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi addressed a public meeting in Balasore Lok Sabha constituency, charging the ruling BJD in Odisha and the opposition BJP with having a tacit understand for mutual political benefits.

At the end of hectic campaign, the prime minister headed to Kanyakumari to meditate till June 1 at the site associated with Swami Vivekananda. Modi had over 200 public outreach programmes, including rallies and roadshows, since the Election Commission announced the Lok Sabha election schedule on March 16.