The 7 phase elections finally comes to an end with 57 seats up for voting today. The vote counting is scheduled to take place on June 4, Tuesday.
Prime Minister led BJP is expecting a historic win for the third straight term.
Out of these 57 seats, 13 are from Uttar Pradesh, nine from West Bengal, eight from Bihar, six from Odisha, four from Himachal Pradesh, three from Jharkhand and a single seat from the Union Territory of Chandigarh.
The BJP which has successfully replaced Congress as the main Opposition party is expecting to sideline Naveen Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal this time.
In Himachal Pradesh, by-elections are being held on six assembly seats which will affect state’s Congress government’s fate. Earlier, all the six seats were held by Congress but later MLAs turned rebel and cross voted for BJP in Rajya Sabha. The MLAs ended up joining BJP.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency Varanasi is also voting today. PM Modi had won upon this seat in 2014 for the first time. Congress has fielded Ajai Rai for this constituency.
The other top leaders up for voting today include, BJ’s Union Minister Anurag Thakur, contesting from Hamirpur, actor-turned-politician Kangana Ranaut from Mandi, junior finance minister Pankaj Chaudhary from Maharajganj and actor-politician Ravi Kishan from Gorakhpur.
Meanwhile, from Opposition Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew and TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee is contesting from Dianmond Harbour, Congress’s Charanjeet Singh Channi from Jalandhar and daughter of RJD chief Lalu Prasad, Misa Bharti from Patliputra.
Following this last voting, there will be an exit poll which the Congress has already boycotted. BJP has called it as Congress’s acceptance for defeat.
