lok-sabha-elections

Updated: May 06, 2020 20:56 IST

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday urged people to break the voting record of the previous three rounds as polling in 72 seats across the country started in the fourth phase of the Lok Sabha election.

“Another phase of the General Elections begins today. I hope those voting today do so in large numbers and break the voting records of the previous three phases,” Prime Minister Modi tweeted.

“A special appeal to young voters to head to the polling booth and exercise their franchise,” he wrote.

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Millions of voters in nine states will vote on Monday to seal the fate of 961 candidates in the fray in 72 Lok Sabha seats, mostly in the state under the Hindi belt, during the fourth of the country’s seven-phase electoral exercise.

The Election Commission has set up 140,852 polling booths and made elaborate security arrangements for the safety of the 128 million people voting on Monday.

Polling is underway in 17 seats in Maharashtra, 13 each in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, eight seats in West Bengal, six each in Odisha and Madhya Pradesh, five in Bihar, three in Jharkhand and one seat in Jammu and Kashmir.

In 2014, the Bharatiya Janata Party won 45 of the 72 seats going to polls on Monday. Its allies won another 11 seats. The Congress’s tally was just two. In 2009, the BJP-Congress breakup in these seats was 9-29.

The votes will be counted on May 23.