The Lok Sabha elections have reached their final stages and today 904 candidates are in the fray across 57 constituencies

In the seventh and final phase of the Lok Sabha elections, polling will be held today, June 1, for 57 constituencies in seven states and one union territory, Chandigarh. Apart from Chandigarh, polling will be held today in 13 seats in Punjab, 4 seats in Himachal Pradesh, 13 seats in Uttar Pradesh, 9 seats in West Bengal, 8 seats in Bihar, 6 seats in Odisha and 3 seats in Jharkhand. Polling for the remaining 42 assembly constituencies in Odisha and 6 assembly constituencies in Himachal Pradesh will be held today. Voting began at 7 am and till 6 pm, 904 candidates including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Minister Anurag Thakur, BJP MP Ravi Kishan, Pawan Singh, Mamata Banerjee's son-in-law Abhishek Banerjee and Lalu Prasad are in the field. Among them are daughter Misa Bharti and actress Kangana Ranaut. More than 10.06 crore citizens, including about 5.24 crore men, 4.82 crore women and 3,574 third gender voters, are eligible to vote at this stage. With voting ending today, the marathon that started on April 19 will come to an end. In this situation, voting was held for 486 Lok Sabha constituencies in 28 states and union territories in the last 6 phases. Polling also took place in the state assemblies of Arunachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Sikkim. The polling for the first six phases was 66.14 percent, 66.71, 65.68, 69.16, 62.2 and 63.36 percent respectively. Counting of votes for 543 Lok Sabha constituencies, including the Andhra Pradesh Assembly, will be held on June 4, while counting of votes for Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim state assembly elections will take place on June 2. As per the Election Commission guidelines, after 6.30 pm on June 1, TV channels and news agencies will be able to show exit poll data and its results. Political war in 13 constituencies in Uttar Pradesh: Voting is taking place in 13 districts of 11 districts in the seventh phase of Uttar Pradesh. Voting will be held for the parliamentary constituencies of Maharajganj, Salempur, Ballia, Ghazipur, Chandauli, Varanasi, Mirzapur, Gorakhpur, Kushinagar, Deoria, Pansgaon (SC), Kosi and Robertsganj (SC). In Uttar Pradesh, there is direct competition between the NDA, the alliance of the Samajwadi Party and the Congress in the India Bloc. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is contesting from Varanasi Lok Sabha seat for the third time and Ajay Roy is contesting from Congress against him. Union Minister Mahendra Nath Pandey is contesting from Chandoli constituency, Pankaj Chaudhary from Maharajganj and Anupriya Patel from Mirzapur. Former Prime Minister Chandrashekhar's son Neeraj Shekhar Ballia and late Mukhtar Ansari's brother Afzal Ansari are contesting the elections from Ghazipur. Polling in Trinamool Congress stronghold Bengal: Polling for nine Lok Sabha constituencies in South Bengal on Saturday. These places have traditionally been strongholds of the TMC. TMC's supremacy will be tested at this stage. In the seventh phase, polling will be held in Jaynagar, Mathurapur, Diamond Harbour, Jadavpur, Dumdam, Parasad, Basirhat, Kolkata South and Kolkata North. TMC won all these seats in 2019 elections. Sandeshkali, under Pasirhat Lok Sabha constituency, was in the news this year for harassment against women. The Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded TMC veteran Haji Nurul Islam, while the BJP has fielded Sandeshkali victim Rekha Patra as its candidate. Meanwhile, the CPM has fielded former MLA Nirbhata Sardar as its candidate. Mamata Banerjee's son-in-law Abhishek Banerjee is contesting from Diamond Harbor for the third time. He is contesting against Pratigur Rahman of CPI(M) and Abhijit Das of BJP. All-round contest for 13 constituencies of Punjab Polling will be held on Saturday for all 13 constituencies of Punjab. In Punjab, former chief minister Saranjit Singh Sunny, three-time MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal, four-time MP Praneet Kaur and Ravneet Singh Bittu are the main candidates. The Shiromani Akali Dal and the BJP are contesting alone for the first time since 1996, while the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party, the two parties in the Indian alliance, have fielded their candidates in all seats. Kangana has interesting competition in Mandi in four constituencies of Himachal Pradesh. Actress Kangana Ranaut is contesting against Himachal Pradesh Minister Vikramaditya Singh on BJP's behalf in the Mandi Lok Sabha seat. The prestige of Vikramaditya Singh, son of former Chief Minister Veerabhadra Singh, has come into question here. Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur is contesting for the fifth term from the Hamirpur Lok Sabha seat, while the credibility of former Union minister Anand Sharma, the Congress candidate from the Congress constituency, is at stake. With the entry of Pawan Singh, the race has turned interesting as Bhojpuri star Pawan Singh is contesting as an independent candidate in the hotly contested Karagad Lok Sabha seat in Bihar. Pawan Singh rejected the BJP ticket and contested the election from West Bengal's Asansol constituency. He has been expelled from the party for this action. In Bihar, Union Minister R.K. Singh is contesting from Arah constituency and he is contested by sitting MLA Sudama Prasad of CPI (ML). Senior BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad is contesting from the Patna Sahib Lok Sabha constituency for the second consecutive term. His rival is Congress spokesperson Anshul Avijit. He is the grandson of Jagjeevan Ram and the son of former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar. In this case, Lalu Prasad Yadav's daughter Misa Bharti is contesting against BJP MP Ram Kripal Yadav in Patliputra constituency.