Voting concluded on Saturday in the seventh and final phase of India's mammoth electoral process with Prime Minister Narendra Modi largely expected to be back for a third term.
In this final phase, 57 seats across eight states and union territories went to the polls. These include all the seats in the northern states of Punjab and Himachal Pradesh.
The constituency of Modi in Varanasi will be among those going to the polls with the northern city regarded as the spiritual capital by the country’s Hindu majority.
Among other star candidates whose electoral fate would be sealed in EVM machines are Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut (Mandi), Union Minister Anurag Thakur (Hamirpur), actor Ravi Kishan (Gorakhpur), SAD's Harsimrat Kaur Badal (Bathinda), RJD's Misa Bharti (Pataliputra) and TMC's Abhishek Banerjee (Diamond Harbour) .
Around 10.06 crore electorate - approximately 5.24 crore male, 4.82 crore female and 3,574 third gender - were eligible to choose their parliamentary representatives from a pool of 908 candidates across 1.09 lakh polling stations.
The constituencies where polling held today include all the 13 LS seats of Punjab, four in Himachal Pradesh, and the lone constituency in the Union Territory of Chandigarh.
Voting is also being conducted in Uttar Pradesh (13 seats), West Bengal (9), Bihar (8), Odisha (6), and Jharkhand (3). The first three states have voted in all phases, where as 42 Assembly Constituencies of Odisha is also voting simultaneously.
The average number of contesting candidates in a parliamentary constituency for the seventh phase is 16.
"Today's voting marks a grand finish to world’s largest polling marathon that began on 19th of last month and already covered 6 phases and 486 Lok Sabha seats. Polling for 28 States/UTs and 486 PCs has been completed in a smooth and peaceful manner," the Election Commission of India said.
The votes for all the phases would be counted on June 4.Before that onus will be on Exit Polls.However, on Sunday, the vote count will take place for the Assembly polls in Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh
