Lok Sabha Elections: Voting begins in final phase

International Desk: Voting in India's election, the world's biggest ever, ends on Sunday after an acrimonious and at times violent campaign awash with insults, fake news -- and lots of petals.

From Goa's beaches to Mumbai's slums and Ladakh's Himalayan monasteries, some 900 million eligible voters have had the chance to exercise their democratic right over the past six weeks.

The enormity of 1.3-billion-strong India and its electorate, and the security and logistical challenges, meant there had to be seven different voting days across 1.1 million polling stations starting on 11 April.

Four million electronic voting machines have criss-crossed the country, travelling to far-flung locations -- sometimes by elephant and camel -- to reach a handful of voters.

All the votes will be counted on a single day, with the voting machines stored in strongrooms with guards and CCTV watching every move before the process begins on Thursday.

In this phase, the BJP will be defending 30 seats - 11 of the 12 it won in Uttar Pradesh in 2014 as it later lost Gorakhpur in a bypoll, seven in Madhya Pradesh, all four in Himachal Pradesh, five in Bihar, one each in Punjab, Jharkhand and Chandigarh.

Allies Apna Dal won one in Uttar Pradesh and the Akali Dal four in Punjab, while then ally Rashtriya Lok Samta Party of Upendra Kushwaha had won two in Bihar. The Janata Dal-United, which is now an ally, won one seat in Bihar.

The Congress had won five seats -- one in Madhya Pradesh and four in Punjab.

Four seats were won by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Punjab and two by the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) in Jharkhand. One seat is currently held by the Samajwadi Party.

In West Bengal, all nine seats were won by the Trinamool Congress.

Re-polling is also being held in several booths in parliamentary seats in six states and in Assembly constituencies in two. These seats include Kerala's Kannur and Kasargod, Tamil Nadu's Dharmapuri, Theni, Thiruvallur, Cuddalore and Erode, Haryana's Faridabad, Uttar Pradesh's Azamgarh, West Bengal's Bankura, Andhra Pradesh's Chittoor parliamentary and Chandgiri Assembly constituencies and 34 Assembly segments in 10 Odisha districts.

Agencies


risingbd/Dhaka/May 19, 2019/Nasim