DELHI IN FOCUS AS 58 LS SEATS GO TO POLLS TODAY

Prominent faces include Pradhan, Manish & Mehbooba

Voting for the sixth and penultimate phase of Lok Sabha polls will be held on Saturday in 58 constituencies in six states and two Union territories, including all the seven seats in Delhi and the Jangal Mahal region in Bengal.

Besides the national capital, polling will be held Saturday in 14 seats in Uttar Pradesh, all 10 seats of Haryana, eight seats each in Bihar and West Bengal, six seats in Odisha, four seats in Jharkhand and one seat in Jammu and Kashmir. Simultaneously, polling will be held for 42 assembly constituencies in Odisha.

Over 11.13 crore voters - 5.84 crore male, 5.29 crore female and 5120 third gender - are eligible to exercise their franchise. The Election Commission (EC) has deployed around 11.4 lakh polling officials at 1.14 lakh polling stations.

With large parts of India sweltering under a heat wave, the EC has directed election officials and state machineries to take adequate measures to manage the adverse impact of hot weather.

Among the prominent candidates are Union ministers Dharmendra Pradhan Rao Inderjit Singh and Krishan Pal Gurjar, BJP’s Maneka Gandhi, Sambit Patra, Manohar Lal Khattar and Manoj Tiwari, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti and Deepender Singh Hooda, Raj Babbar and Kanhaiya Kumar of Congress.

The poll panel also urged voters to come out in greater numbers and vote with responsibility and pride. It particularly reminded voters in urban centres like Delhi, Gurugram and Faridabad about their “right and duty to vote and break the trend of urban apathy”.