16.25pc voting till 11am during final phase polls in country

Surjit Kumar DhalNew Delhi, May 19: Nearly 16.25 per cent polling was registered till 11 am on Sunday as voting for 59 parliamentary constituencies and their assembly segments began in the morning in the final phase.

The fifty nine parliamentary constituencies are going to the polls in seven states and one union territory.

The states and UT going to the polls today are Bihar (8), Jharkhand (3), Madhya Pradesh (8), Punjab (13), West Bengal (9), Uttar Pradesh (13), Himachal Pradesh (4) and Chandigarh (1). The results will be announced on May 23.

More than 10 crore voters will decide the fate of 918 candidates in the fray.

Some of the key constituencies to go to the polls today are Varanasi that is Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home turf, Patna Sahib that will see Shatrughan Sinha contesting against union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Chandigarh that has BJP leader Kirron Kher in the fray, and Gurdaspur where BJP Sunny Deol and Congress’ Sunil Jakhar will fight it out. Four Union ministers, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Ram Kripal Yadav, RK Singh and Ashwini Kumar Choubey, are among the 157 candidates in Bihar.

Further, by-poll is being conducted in Panaji, necessitated due to the death of former chief minister Manohar Parrikar in March.

Bye-elections are also be held in four assembly constituencies of Tamil Nadu – Sulur, Aravakurichi, Ottapidaram (SC) and Thiruparankundram – and the Dehri assembly seat in Bihar.