The Election Commission has set up 1.40 lakh polling booths/stations and has 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.
Lok Sabha Elections 2019 Phase 4: Key Candidates
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, will be decided by around 12.79 core eligible voters in the fourth phase.
Among other key contestants in the fray are 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).
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot's son, a member of erstwhile Jaipur royal family and two Union ministers are among 115 candidates whose fate will be decided on Monday. Jodhpur became one of the most talked about seats in the Congress-ruled state where Gehlot did massive campaigning for his son Vaibhav, pitted against sitting MP and Union minister of state Gajendra Singh Shekhawat.
Lok Sabha Elections 2019 Phase 4: Key Parties
The stakes are 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.
Lok Sabha Elections 2019 Phase 4: Key States
Voting will take place in 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.
Maharashtra
Constituencies going to vote: 17
Total number of contesting candidates: 323
Total number of polling booths: 33,314
Total number of voters: 3,11,92,823
Total number of male voters: 1,66,31,707
Total number of female voters: 1,45,59,698
Number of voters of third gender: 1,418
Rajasthan
Constituencies going to vote: 13
Total number of contesting candidates: 115
Total number of polling booths: 28,182
Total number of voters: 2,57,76,993
Total number of male voters: 1,33,00,801
Total number of female voters: 1,24,76,052
Number of voters of third gender: 140
Uttar Pradesh
Constituencies going to vote: 13
Total number of contesting candidates: 152
Total number of polling booths: 27,513
Total number of voters: 2,38,88,367
Total number of male voters: 1,29,75,125
Total number of female voters: 1,09,12,012
Number of voters of third gender: 1230
West Bengal
Constituencies going to vote: 8
Total number of contesting candidates: 68
Total number of polling booths: 15,277
Total number of voters: 134,56,491
Total number of male voters: 69,06,199
Total number of female voters: 65,50,004
Number of voters of third gender: 288
Madhya Pradesh
Constituencies going to vote: 6
Total number of contesting candidates: 108
Total number of polling booths: 13,491
Total number of voters: 105,55,689
Total number of male voters: 53,99,760
Total number of female voters: 515,57,51
Number of voters of third gender: 178
Odisha
Constituencies going to vote: 6
Total number of contesting candidates: 52
Total number of polling booths: 10,792
Total number of voters: 95,14,883
Total number of male voters: 49,08,575
Total number of female voters: 46,05,694
Number of voters of third gender: 615
Bihar
Constituencies going to vote: 5
Total number of contesting candidates: 66
Total number of polling booths: 8,834
Total number of voters: 87,02,313
Total number of male voters: 4,63,5071
Total number of female voters: 40,67,009
Number of voters of third gender: 233
Jharkhand
Constituencies going to vote: 3
Total number of contesting candidates: 59
Total number of polling booths: 3,013
Total number of voters: 45,26,693
Total number of male voters: 23,85,932
Total number of female voters: 2,14,0750
Number of voters of third gender: 11
Jammu & Kashmir
Constituencies going to vote: 1
Total number of contesting candidates: 18
Total number of polling booths: 433
Total number of voters: 3,44,224
Total number of male voters: 1,79,607
Total number of female voters: 1,64,604
Number of voters of third gender: 13
All you need to know about states going for polls in Phase IV
Election in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, where the BJP had cornered all but two of the total 54 seats in 2014, will begin in this phase. The Congress appeared to make a comeback, forming the governments in the states after last year's Assembly polls. In Uttar Pradesh, most of these 13 seats are seeing a direct fight between the BJP and SP-BSP alliance with Kannauj being a matter of prestige for the SP.
In 2014, the BJP won 12 of these 13 seats in the state. Only Kannauj, won by the Samajwadi Party, defied the Modi wave that year among them. Former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav's wife Dimple is seeking re-election from Kannauj. The Congress has a good presence in at least three of the constituencies -- Unnao (Annu Tandon), Farrukhabad (Salman Khurshid) and Kanpur (Sriprakash Jaiswal).
In West Bengal, all the eight seats, which are spread across four districts, will see a four-cornered contest between Trinamool Congress, BJP, Congress and the Left Front. In Odisha, where the state's ruling BJD won all six seats, the BJP is making concerted efforts to bag a few seats.
Prominent among the hopefuls include BJP national vice-president Baijayant Panda (Kendrapara), who quit the BJD to join the party recently. Polling will also be held in 41 assembly seats in Odisha in this phase.
In Bihar, the BJP and its allies are looking to retain all the five seats in the face of a spirited fight put up by the RJD-Congress alliance. The cynosure of all eyes in this phase, however, is the Begusarai seat which will witness an electrifying contest between the political Left and the Right with CPI debutant Kanhaiya Kumar taking on firebrand BJP leader Giriraj Singh.
In all the six seats in Madhya Pradesh, a direct fight between the Congress and the BJP is on the cards. The state's new power centre is witnessing a unique father-son electoral show with Chief Minister Kamal Nath and his son Nakul in the fray, hoping to boost not just the Congress but also strike roots as deep as the tree from where this region takes its name.
Polling will also be held in Kulgam district, which is part of Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency. Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency in Jammu and Kashmir is spread over four districts of Anantnag, Kulgam, Shopian and Pulwama with 16 assembly segments. The Lok Sabha polls to this constituency are being held in three phases due to security reasons.
Election to 542 Lok Sabha seats is being conducted in seven phases between April 11 and May 19. Election in Vellore constituency in Tamil Nadu has been cancelled following excess use of money power. Results will be declared on May 23.