LS Polls: 904 candidates in fray on 57 seats in 8 states in 7th phase

New Delhi, May 22 (HS). Voting will be held on June 1, for 57 parliamentary seats in seven states and one union territory for the seventh and final phase of Lok Sabha elections. A total of 904 candidates are in the fray in this phase.

The Election Commission on Wednesday said that a total of 2105 nomination papers were filed for 57 parliamentary constituencies in seven states and one union Territory for the seventh phase of Lok Sabha elections. The last date for filing nomination papers for this phase was May 14. After scrutiny of all the nominations filed, 954 nominations were found valid. Of these, 50 candidates withdrew their names from the election. In such a situation, now only 904 candidates are left in the fray.

According to the Commission, after the withdrawal of nominations, now there are 134 candidates on 8 seats in Bihar, 19 on one seat in Chandigarh, 37 on 4 seats in Himachal Pradesh, 52 on 3 seats in Jharkhand, 66 on 3 seats in Odisha, 328 on 13 seats in Punjab. 144 candidates are in the fray for 13 seats in Uttar Pradesh and 124 candidates for 9 seats in West Bengal.

According to the Commission, there were a maximum of 598 nomination forms from 13 parliamentary constituencies in Punjab in this phase. After this, there were 495 nominations from 13 parliamentary constituencies in Uttar Pradesh. 36- Maximum 73 nomination papers were received from Jehanabad parliamentary constituency of Bihar. After this, 70 nomination papers were received from 7-Ludhiana parliamentary constituency of Punjab. The average number of candidates contesting in a parliamentary constituency for this phase is 16.