Voting began for the seven Lok Sabha seats of Delhi along with 52 others seats in the 6th phase of seven-phased parliamentary elections. As many as 979 candidates are in the fray.
Apart from Delhi where seven Lok Sabha seats are at stake, the polling is underway in Bihar for 8 seats, Haryana all 10 seats, Madhya Pradesh 8 seats, Uttar Pradesh 14 seats, West Bengal 8 seats and Jharkhand four seats.
The prominent among those who are in the fray are former chief ministers Akhilesh Yadav from Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh, Digvijay Singh from Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, Bhupinder Singh Hooda from Sonepat in Haryana, and Sheila Dikshit from North-East Delhi.
The other bigwigs whose fate will be decided on Sunday are Union Ministers Radha Mohan Singh from Purvi Champaran in Bihar, Dr Harsh Vardhan from Chandani Chowk in Delhi, and Narendra Singh Tomar from Morena in Madhya Pradesh.
Former Union Minister and RJD veteran Raghuvansh Prasad Singh is in the fray from Vaishali in Bihar, while Congress general secretary and also a former union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia is contesting from Guna in Madhya Pradesh.
The key candidates whose fate will be sealed in electronic voting machines (EVMs) on Sunday in the national capital apart from Union Minister Harsh Vardhan, include Meenakshi Lekhi from New Delhi, Gautam Gambhir, Atishi from East Delhi, Raghav Chadha, Vijender Singh and Ramesh Bidhuri from South Delhi.
The re-polling is also underway on booth number 116 in Barrackpore parliamentary constituency and polling station number 110 in Arambag parliamentary constituency of West Bengal. Re-polling is also taking place at one polling station in Puducherry and at 168 polling stations in Tripura West parliamentary seat.
The first five phases of Lok Sabha polls were held on April 11, 18, 23, 29, and May 6. The sixth and seventh phases will take place on May 12 and 19 respectively. The counting of votes will take place on May 23.
(With ANI inputs)