NEW DELHI, Apr 27: Campaigning for the fourth phase of polling scheduled for 29 April in 72 parliamentary constituencies across nine states ended on Saturday after days of hectic canvassing as leaders made energetic efforts to garner votes.
Polling will be held in 17 seats in Maharashtra, 13 each in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, eight in West Bengal, six each in Madhya Pradesh and Odisha, five in Bihar, three in Jharkhand and a part of the Anantnag constituency in Jammu & Kashmir.
The stakes are high for the ruling BJP and its allies as it had swept 56 of these seats in 2014, leaving just two for the Congress and the rest for other opposition parties such as the Trinamool Congress and the Biju Janata Dal.
The fate of 961 candidates, including union ministers Giriraj Singh, Subhash Bhamre, SS Ahluwalia and Babul Supriyo of the BJP and former union ministers Salman Khurshid and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury of the Congress, will be decided by about 12.79 core voters in this phase.
Among other key contestants in the fray are Kanhaiya Kumar (CPI), Baijayant Panda (BJP), Urmila Matondkar (Congress), Dimple Yadav (Samajwadi Party), Satabdi Roy (TMC) and Milind Deora (Congress).
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP chief Amit Shah, Congress president Rahul Gandhi and a host of union ministers, among others, canvassed for their party candidates over the past few days, undertaking whirlwind tours of constituencies.
Elections to 542 Lok Sabha (LS) seats are being conducted in seven phases between 11 April and 19 May. Election in the Vellore constituency in Tamil Nadu has been cancelled following excess use of money power.
In the first three phases, voting was held in 302 LS constituencies, apart from Anantnag. The results will be declared on 23 May. (PTI)