Elections 2019 Phase 4 HIGHLIGHTS: 64% voter turnout recorded as polling ends in 72 constituencies
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Background
Lok Sabha Elections 2019: The fourth phase of Lok Sabha Elections 2019, which started today on as many as 72 parliamentary constituencies spread across 9 states, garnered 64 per cent overall voter turnout. People of the country exercised their franchise in some seats of Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. Voting on all 72 constituencies began at 7 am and concluded at 6 pm at all polling booths. A total of 943 candidates were in fray for the fourth phase of General Elections.
The Election Commission had installed 1.40 lakh polling booths/stations and had also made elaborate security arrangements. In the first three phases, voting has been held in 302 Lok Sabha constituencies, and 168 more seats will go to polls in the last three phases.
The fate of these candidates, including Union ministers Giriraj Singh, Babul Supriyo, Subhash Bhamre, SS Ahluwalia of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and former Union ministers Salman Khurshid and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury of the Congress party, has been decided by around 12.79 core eligible voters in the fourth phase.
Among other key contestants in the fray were Kanhaiya Kumar (CPI), Dimple Yadav (Samajwadi Party), Priya Dutt (Congress), Urmila Matondkar (Congress), Baijayant Panda (BJP), Satabdi Roy (TMC), Milind Deora (Congress) and Upendra Kushwaha (RLSP).
The stakes were high for the ruling BJP and its allies as it had swept 56 of these seats in 2014, leaving just two for the Congress and the rest for other opposition parties such as the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) bagging six seats each. Voting took place on 17 seats in Maharashtra, 13 each in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, eight in West Bengal, six each in Madhya Pradesh and Odisha, five in Bihar, three in Jharkhand and a part of the Anantnag constituency in Jammu and Kashmir.