New Delhi: Janta Dal (U) President and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said that elections should not be held over such a long duration and added that there was a long gap between each phase of voting. He further said that he will write to leaders of all parties to build a consensus on this issue.

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Bihar CM also said that his party will never support Article 35A and 370 and stated that their stand has remained clear since 1996 that the party will never support common civil code. On Ayodhya issue, Nitish Kumar said that it should be solved through the court.

The seven-phased national elections began on April 11 and the votes will be counted on May 23. Apart from this, assembly polls also took place in Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim simultaneously with the general election.

Meanwhile, the seventh phase of voting began today across 59 Lok Sabha constituencies in seven states and a Union Territory across the north, central and east India in the final of the mega seven-phase electoral exercise, IANS reported.

For this final phase, polling will take place on remaining eight constituencies of Bihar, three of Jharkhand, eight of Madhya Pradesh, 13 of Uttar Pradesh, nine in West Bengal and all the four of Himachal Pradesh, 13 of Punjab and one seat in Chandigarh.

In this seventh and final phase, all eyes will be on key battles between top candidates including PM Narendra Modi who is contesting from Varanasi. BJP leader and Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad is facing actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha who joined the Congress in April. Bollywood star Sunny Deol is also contesting from Gurdaspur, Punjab.

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