Polling is underway for the sixth phase of Lok Sabha elections. Voting is taking place for 117 constituencies spread over 11 States and one Union Territory. These are all 39 seats in Tamil Nadu, 19 in Maharashtra, 12 in Uttar Pradesh, 10 in Madhya Pradesh, 7 each in Bihar and Chhattisgarh, 6 each in Assam and West Bengal, 5 in Rajasthan, 4 in Jharkhand and one each in Jammu & Kashmir and Union Territory of Puducherry. Voting, which started at 7 AM, will end at 6 PM except in some naxal affected areas and Jammu & Kashmir. Elaborate security arrangements have been made to ensure free and fair polling.
Prominent candidates whose fate will be decided today include V Narayanasamy, Salman Khurshid, Jitendra Singh, Namonarayan Meena, Mohd Azharuddin, Milind Deora, Priya Dutt and Abhijit Mukherjee of Congress and Sushma Swaraj, Hema Malini and Shahnawaz Hussain of BJP. Other prominent candidates include Mulayam Singh Yadav of Samajwadi Party, Tariq Anwar of NCP and Dayanidhi Maran, A Raja and TR Baalu of DMK and Medha Patkar of Aam Aadmi Party.