In its seventh and last phase today, elections were held on 59 seats across eight states. Bengal once again witnessed crude bombs, lathi charges, claims of attacks on the BJP candidates. Rival groups threw crude bombs at Bhatpara and were brought under control only after the police used force, reports Navodita, exclusively for Different Truths.

It seems like the voter turnout was quite good in the final phase of polling in these Lok Sabha elections with almost 66.4 percent votes polled. In its seventh and last phase today, elections were held on 59 seats across eight states. Bengal once again witnessed crude bombs, lathi charges, claims of attacks on the BJP candidates. Rival groups threw crude bombs at Bhatpara and were brought under control only after the police used force. Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the forces should stay in the state until counting is over. Among the many contestants in this phase was PM Narendra Modi who is seeking re-election from Varanasi. Polling was also held on 13 seats in eastern UP and also in parts of Punjab. Some of the key takeaways from today’s election are:

• Voting took place on 13 seats of Punjab and an equal number of seats in Uttar Pradesh, nine in West Bengal, eight seats each in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, four in Himachal Pradesh, three in Jharkhand and one in Chandigarh.
• Bengal saw the most heated battle as the BJP, which won only two seats in the state in 2014, is targeting 23 of its 42 Lok Sabha seats. Today, rival groups threw crude bombs during by-polls for Bengal’s Bhatpara assembly seat. The clash came under control only after the police used batons. Two BJP candidates from Kolkata and one from Diamond Harbour claimed they were attacked.
• Nirmala Sitharaman said, “We fear the TMC will carry out a concerted and synchronised round of violence post-election and that’s why Central forces must remain in Bengal. The TMC has been persistent with their ideology of violence.”
• Trinamool blames the BJP for the violence and accused Central forces of “taking orders from BJP, mercilessly beating up citizens and Trinamool workers”. Mamata Banerjee said: “The torture that BJP workers and central forces have carried out today since the morning, is unprecedented. I have never seen anything like this before”.
• In Varanasi, Congress’s Ajay Rai and grand alliance candidate Shalini Yadav was up against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Congress, which is going solo in this election, is trying to regain lost ground in eastern Uttar Pradesh by putting Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in charge in the area. But despite a huge buzz, the party has not fielded her from Varanasi against PM Modi.
• A bypoll was held in Goa’s Panaji, made necessary by the death of former Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar in March. Bye-elections were also held in four assembly constituencies of Tamil Nadu — Sulur, Aravakurichi, Ottapidaram and Thiruparankundram — and the Dehri assembly seat in Bihar.
• In Punjab, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has asked his party workers to deliver all 13 seats to the party. In 2014, the Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party and the Shiromani Akali Dal had won four seats each, the Congress three and the BJP two.
• Besides Varanasi, the key seats that voted in this round included Bihar’s Patna Sahib, where actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha takes on Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad; Chandigarh, which is seeing a triangular battle between the BJP’s Kirron Kher, Congress candidate Pawan Kumar Bansal and AAP’s Harmohan Dhawan; Gurudaspur, where actor-politician Sunny Deol is up against Congress parliamentarian Sunil Jakhar.
• The BJP had the most at stake in this phase of the election. In 2014, it won 30 of these seats and is trying to increase the tally. The party is facing a grand alliance of Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav in Uttar Pradesh and the Congress and Lalu Yadav’s party in Bihar. In Punjab and West Bengal, it is facing the Congress and the Trinamool Congress.
• An average of 66.88 per cent voters exercised their franchise in the last six phases. The counting of votes will be held on May 23.

While exit polls have begun their rounds and indicate a comeback for the BJP, these are nothing to swear by. That said, there are a couple of places where the margins appear close enough for multiple significant outcomes to still be possible. Uttar Pradesh, India’s largest and most politically significant state, is one.

While exit polls have begun their rounds and indicate a comeback for the BJP, these are nothing to swear by. That said, there are a couple of places where the margins appear close enough for multiple significant outcomes to still be possible. Uttar Pradesh, India’s largest and most politically significant state, is one. Unsurprisingly, it is also the state which has seen the widest variation in exit poll predictions. We cannot know yet whether the BJP will get 25 or 65 here; one number would still likely give the National Democratic Alliance victory, but the other number would mean that the 2014 victory, which seemed unrepeatable, has actually been repeated. Lightning would have struck twice. This remains one of the open questions on 23 May. But in the last two UP elections – 2014 and 2017 – the scale of the BJP victory and its margins were underestimated by almost everyone. Given its performance elsewhere in the north, it would be foolish to bet against a repeat of 2014’s 73. And Rahul Gandhi may well lose his seat in Amethi.

That the leadership in the Congress continues to remain an eyewash, nothing great seems to be taking shape for this grand old party, despite Priyanka Vadra’s perseverance as the new office bearer, the General Secretary of AICC.

So, will Lady Luck side up with the BJP or the Congress is anybody’s guess? That the leadership in the Congress continues to remain an eyewash, nothing great seems to be taking shape for this grand old party, despite Priyanka Vadra’s perseverance as the new office bearer, the General Secretary of AICC. There were hopes from the Federal Front coming to the forefront, but it seems Modi’s and Amit Shah’s rallies have shown results.

This election in particular seemed to highlight a sharp political invective between the two parties with a lot of mudslinging on the leaders of both parties and Election Commission of India constantly cracking the whip on some leaders. Yet there were people coming out in large numbers to vote which truly made this election a complete democratic exercise, something to be proud of.

Photos from the Internet