New Delhi: Its D-Day today for general elections in 12 states for 121 Lok Sabha seats. It includes the most number of the constituencies of all the nine phases. Polling will also be held for rest of the 77 seats in Odisha Assembly.
Waters will be tested in 28 LS seats in Karnataka, Maharashtra (19), Rajasthan (20), Uttar Pradesh (11), Bihar (seven), Chhattisgarh (three), Jammu and Kashmir (one), Jharkhand (six), Madhya Pradesh (10), Manipur (one), Odisha (11) and Uttarakhand (four).
It will be the second of the six-phase elections in Bihar. A report from Patna said 117 candidates are in the fray for today’s election. Of them, 33 are independents, five women and three belong to minority communities. Tinsel town actors, a noted doctor and Bollywood star Shatrughan Sinha (BJP) are in the contest from Patna Sahib.
The Congress, which is contesting the electoral battle in alliance with RJD in the state, has fielded Kunal Singh, a popular actor of Bhojpuri films. The seven seats slated for polling are Munger, Nalanda, Patna Saheb, Patliputra, Ara, Buxar and Jehanabad. An electoral college of 1,22,35,882 features 56,45,767 women in 11,486 polling stations in Bihar.
Undeterred by sudden spurt in militant violence, campaigning in all the three constituencies in the Kashmir valley ended with political parties organising rallies and road shows daily.
However, majority of the separatist organisations launched election boycott campaign in the valley, alleging election or selection will not help to resolve the Kashmir issue. Agencies
