Voting underway on 49 seats in 6 states and 2 UTs including Jharkhand in fifth phase of LS polls

THE JHARKHAND STORY DESK

New Delhi, May 20: In the fifth phase of Lok Sabha elections, voting is going on from 7 am amid tight security arrangements on 49 Lok Sabha seats in six states and two union territories, which will continue till 6 pm.

The 49 Lok Sabha seats include 14 from Uttar Pradesh, 13 from Maharashtra, seven from West Bengal, five from Bihar, three from Jharkhand, five from Odisha, one from Baramulla in Jammu and Kashmir and one from Ladakh.

Along with the Lok Sabha elections in Odisha, the second phase of voting is also being held for the remaining 35 assembly seats. At the same time, in Uttar Pradesh, voting is also going on for the by-election on Lucknow East Assembly seat.

Three Jharkhand LS seats undergoing voting

Voting commenced at 7 am in the Chatra, Hazaribag, and Koderma Lok Sabha constituencies in Jharkhand. The voting in Jharkhand will continue till 5 pm.

In this phase, 22 candidates are vying for the Chatra seat, 15 are competing in Koderma, and 17 are contesting in Hazaribag.

Approximately 58.34 lakh voters, including 28.35 lakh women, are eligible to cast their ballots in these three constituencies.

Also Read- Helicopter crash kills Iranian President Raisi and foreign minister, PM Modi expresses grief

Rajnath Singh, Piyush Goyal, Smriti Irani, Rahul Gandhi in fray

A total of 695 candidates are in the fray for 49 Lok Sabha seats in the fifth phase. Rae Bareli and Amethi are ‘high profile’ seats in this, from where former Congress President Rahul Gandhi and Union Minister Smriti Irani are in the fray. Apart from this, the reputation of many big leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) including veteran leaders Rajnath Singh and Piyush Goyal is at stake.

8 crore 95 lakh eligible voters

The fate of these candidates will be decided by 8 crore 95 lakh voters. In this, 5409 voters are third gender. Of these, there are 24,792 voters aged 100 years or more, while there are 7 lakh 81 thousand voters aged 85 years or more. Seven lakh three thousand voters are physically disabled. Voting is going to be held on the least number of seats (49) in the fifth phase. 9 lakh 47 thousand employees are deployed at 94732 polling stations set up in 8 states and union territories.