New Delhi: On Monday, Voting has begun in the fourth phase of the Lok Sabha Elections 2019. Polling is taking place in 72 parliamentary constituencies across nine states. Voting is being held in 17 seats in Maharashtra including Mumbai, 13 each in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, eight in West Bengal, six each in Madhya Pradesh and Odisha, five in Bihar, and three in Jharkhand. Voting is also being held in a part of Jammu and Kashmir’s Anantnag constituency, where polling is being organised over three phases due to security reasons.

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In the 2014 Lok Sabha Elections, the BJP and its allies had won 56 of these 72 seats. The Congress party had won just two seats and the rest was won by other opposition parties like the Trinamool Congress (6) and the Biju Janata Dal (6).Prime Minister Narendra Modi has appealed to voters to come out and cast vote in large numbers. "Another phase of the General Elections begins today. I hope those voting today do so in large numbers and break the voting records of the previous three phases. A special appeal to young voters to head to the polling booth and exercise their franchise," the PM tweeted.

There are a number of high-profile candidates in this phase. These include Giriraj Singh, Subhash Bhamre, S.S. Ahluwalia and Babul Supriyo (BJP), Salman Khurshid (Congress), Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury (Congress), Kanhaiya Kumar (CPI), Baijayant Panda (BJP), Urmila Matondkar (Congress), Dimple Yadav (Samajwadi Party), Satabdi Roy (TMC) and Milind Deora (Congress).

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A total of 12 crore 79 lakh voters will cast their votes with the Election Commission urging everyone to be part of the democratic process. Today’s voting will see the fate of 961 candidates being sealed in electronic voting machines (EVMs). Nearly 12.79 core voters are eligible to cast votes in the fourth phase of the Lok Sabha polls. Voting will be held at 1.40 lakh polling booths/stations under tight security. Polling is being held in 542 of the total 543 Lok Sabha seats across seven phases between April 11 and May 19. Voting in Tamil Nadu’s Vellore constituency was cancelled by the Election Commission over excess use of money power. The results of the Lok Sabha Elections 2019 will be announced on May 23 when the EVMs will be opened and votes taken up for counting.