ECI has directed officials to take adequate measures to manage adverse impact of hot weather as large parts of India witnesses a heat wave
Representative image of women voters
On Saturday, 25 May, over 11 crore voters will decide the fate of 889 candidates contesting in the sixth and penultimate phase of the Lok Sabha elections across 58 seats in six states and two Union territories, including all the seven seats in Delhi and the Jangal Mahal region in Bengal.
Besides the national capital, polling will be held in 14 seats in Uttar Pradesh, all 10 seats of Haryana, eight seats each in Bihar and West Bengal, six seats in Odisha, four seats in Jharkhand and one seat in Jammu and Kashmir. Simultaneously, polling will be held for 42 assembly constituencies in Odisha.
Polling for the Anantnag-Rajouri seat in Jammu and Kashmir will also be held on Saturday. The election there was postponed from phase three to six due to logistical issues owing to adverse weather conditions.
In a statement issued on 24 May, the poll panel said the India Meteorological Department has predicted “no adverse impact” of cyclone in poll-going constituencies. However, it did not give any additional details.
Over 11.13 crore voters – 5.84 crore male, 5.29 crore female and 5120 third gender – are eligible to exercise their franchise. The Election Commission of India (EC) has deployed around 11.4 lakh polling officials at 1.14 lakh polling stations.
With large parts of India sweltering under a heat wave, the ECI has directed election officials and state machinery to take adequate measures to manage the adverse impact of hot weather.
Among the prominent candidates are Union Ministers Dharmendra Pradhan Rao, Inderjit Singh and Krishan Pal Gurjar, BJP’s Maneka Gandhi, Sambit Patra, Manohar Lal Khattar and Manoj Tiwari, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti and Deepender Singh Hooda, Raj Babbar and Kanhaiya Kumar of Congress.
The poll panel also urged voters to come out in greater numbers and vote with responsibility and pride. It particularly reminded voters in urban centres like Delhi, Gurugram and Faridabad about their “right and duty to vote and break the trend of urban apathy”.
The fifth phase saw a voter turnout of 62.2 per cent in the 49 seats that went to polls on 20 May.
An interesting fight is on the cards in Delhi with the BJP and the INDIA bloc partners pitted in a direct, one-on-one contest in all seven seats. This is the first time the AAP and the Congress have fielded joint candidates against the BJP. While the AAP is contesting four seats, the Congress has fielded candidates for the remaining three seats.
Over 11.13 crore people, including 5.84 crore men, 5.29 crore women and 5,120 third-gender electors, are eligible to vote in the sixth phase.
The last phase of polling will be on 1 June for the remaining 57 seats with the counting of votes scheduled on 4 June.
(Disclaimer: The headline, subheads, and intro of this report along with the photos may have been reworked by South First. The rest of the content is from a syndicated feed, and has been edited for style.)
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