New Delhi, May — In the fifth phase of the Lok Sabha elections, 49 constituencies across eight states will go to the polls on Monday. Voting will take place from 7 AM to 6 PM, with over 94,000 polling stations ready to accommodate 8.95 crore voters.
This phase includes 14 seats in Uttar Pradesh, 5 in Bihar, 3 in Jharkhand, 13 in Maharashtra, 5 in Odisha, 7 in West Bengal, 1 in Jammu and Kashmir, and 1 in Ladakh. Additionally, voting will also occur for 35 assembly seats in Odisha. The election campaign for this phase concluded on Saturday evening, with 695 candidates contesting the 49 Lok Sabha seats. Of these, 39 seats are unreserved, three are reserved for Scheduled Tribes, and seven for Scheduled Castes. In Odisha, 21 of the 35 assembly constituencies are unreserved, while 8 are reserved for Scheduled Tribes and 6 for Scheduled Castes.
Out of the 8.95 crore voters, 4.69 crore are male, 4.26 crore are female, and 5,409 are third-gender voters. Notably, there are over 7.81 lakh voters aged above 85 years, 24,792 voters over 100 years, and 7.03 lakh voters with disabilities, who have been given the option to vote from home.
Key constituencies in this phase include Sitamarhi, Madhubani, Muzaffarpur, Saran, and Hajipur in Bihar; Chatra, Koderma, and Hazaribagh in Jharkhand; Dhule, Dindori, Nashik, Palghar, Bhiwandi, Kalyan, Thane, Mumbai North, Mumbai North-West, Mumbai North-East, Mumbai North-Central, Mumbai South-Central, and Mumbai South in Maharashtra; Bargarh, Sundergarh, Bolangir, Kandhamal, and Aska in Odisha; Mohanlalganj, Lucknow, Rae Bareli, Amethi, Jalaun, Jhansi, Hamirpur, Banda, Fatehpur, Kaushambi, Barabanki, Faizabad, Kaiserganj, and Gonda in Uttar Pradesh; Bangaon, Barrackpore, Howrah, Uluberia, Shrirampur, Hooghly, and Arambag in West Bengal; Baramulla in Jammu and Kashmir; and the Ladakh seat.
Significant contests include Congress leader Rahul Gandhi from Rae Bareli and BJP leader Smriti Irani from Amethi, with Defense Minister Rajnath Singh contesting from Lucknow. In Maharashtra, the Maha Vikas Aghadi faces off against the NDA, with Union Minister Piyush Goyal from Mumbai North, advocate Ujjwal Nikam from Mumbai North-Central against Congress' Varsha Gaikwad, and Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's son Shrikant Shinde contesting against Shiv Sena's Vaishali Darekar Rane from Kalyan. In Bihar, RJD leader Lalu Yadav's daughter Rohini Acharya is contesting from Saran, and Chirag Paswan is the candidate from Hajipur. National Conference Vice President Omar Abdullah is contesting from Baramulla.
With voting on Monday, two phases will remain, scheduled for May 25 and June 1. The counting of votes for all phases will take place on June 4. Voting for 379 seats across 23 states and union territories has already been completed in the first four phases of the general elections.
