Lok Sabha elections: Voters seal the fate of 1,769 candidates in EVMs

New Delhi: A large number of voters exercised their franchise across 121 constituencies in 12 states in the fifth and the biggest phase of Lok Sabha elections on April 17. With five phases over, polling has taken place in 230 out of the 543 Lok Sabha constituencies.

While some seats witnessed a massive rush of voters pushing the turnout to well over 70 per cent, several others saw a more modest figure but still much better than 2009. The fate of 1,769 candidates has been sealed in EVMs which will be known on May 16.

Voting was by and large peaceful with more than 75 per cent of the electorate exercising their franchise while the 11 seats of Uttar Pradesh recorded over 62 per cent polling. Karnataka recorded 65 per cent in 28 seats till 6 pm while in Bihar, too, voting was brisk with 54.04 per cent polling recorded in 7 seats.

19 seats of Maharashtra and 4 seats of West Bengal too recorded a bracing turnout. In Maharashtra polling was recorded 61.7 per cent and in West Bengal it was recorded 78.89 per cent.

Polling began at 7 am on Thursday across Karnataka, Maharashtra, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Odisha, Jammu and Kashmir and Manipur.

Congress candidate from Bangalore South Nandan Nilekani, BJP's Ananth Kumar were amongst the early voters. Bellary witnessed 64 per cent voting till 5 PM.

In Odisha, 70 per cent voters exercised their franchise till 6 pm for the simultaneous second and last phase of the elections to 11 Lok Sabha and 77 assembly constituencies.

Around 54.41 per cent voting was reported in 10 seats of Madhya Pradesh, while in its neighbouring Chhattisgarh 63.44 per cent voter turnout was recorded in three Naxal-hit constituencies.

Rajasthan voter turnout was 63.25 per cent and 62 per cent voting was recorded in six seats of Jharkhand till 6 pm.

While Jammu and Kashmir's Udhampur constituency recorded a turnout of 69.08 per cent which was 24 per cent higher than the 45.15 per cent recorded in the previous LS polls.

The Northeastern state of Manipur also witnessed a high turnout of voters. 74 per cent voter turnout was recorded in the state.

The fifth phase of the Lok Sabha elections is seeing many big names in the fray. While the fate of Union Ministers including Jyotiraditya Scindia, Sushil Kumar Shinde and Sachin Pilot will be sealed in the biggest phase on Thursday, there are also big names like Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani, former Karnataka CM BS Yeddyurappa and Lalu Prasad's daughter Misa Bharti in the fray.

Following is the list of key candidates in the fifth phase of the Lok Sabha elections:

KARNATAKA

Nandan Nilekani v/s Ananthkumar - Bangalore South

HD Deve Gowda - Hassan

BS Yeddyurappa - Shimoga

B Sriramulu - Bellary

BIHAR

Shatrughan Sinha vs Kunal Singh Yadav in Patna Sahib

Misa Bharti from Patliputra

Ashish Ranjan Sinha (Congress) from Nalanda

JHARKHAND

Subodh Kant Sahay vs Amitabh Choudhary vs Ram Tahal Choudhary in Ranchi

Ajay Kumar vs Dineshanand Goswami in Jamshedpur

Jayant Sinha from Hazaribagh

MADHYA PRADESH

Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia from Guna

Narendra Singh Tomar (BJP) from Gwalior

Rachna Dhingra (AAP) vs Alok Sanjar (BJP) in Bhopal

MAHARASHTRA

Nanded - Ashok Chavan (Congress)

Gopinath Munde(BJP ) - Bheed

Supriya Sule (NCP)- Baramati

Sushil Kumar Shinde (Congress) - Solapur

Pune - Vishwajit Kadam - (Congress)

RAJASTHAN

Barmer - Jaswant Singh (Independent) v/s Colonel Sona Ram of BJP

Ajmer - Sachin Pilot of Congress

Jaipur rural - Rajyavardhan Rathore vs CP JOSHI

Sawai Madhopur - MD Azaruddin

Chitoragarh - Dr. Girija Vyas

CHHATTISGARH

Ajit Jogi from Mahasamund

Abhishek Singh from Rajnadgaon

West Bengal

Baichung Bhutia - TMC - Darjeeling

JAMMU & KASHMIR

Union Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad from Udhampur-Doda

ODISHA

Kendrapara - Jay Panda - BJD

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