New Delhi, June 1 : Amid great enthusiasm, lakhs of Indians lined up before polling booths, as voting began at 7 a.m. for 57 Lok Sabha constituencies spread over seven states and a Union Territory in the seventh and final phase of Lok Sabha elections on Saturday.

The seats which have gone to the hustings include Varanasi, from where Prime Minister Narendra Modi is hoping to complete a hat-trick of wins.

Among other star candidates whose electoral fate would be sealed in EVM machines are Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut (Mandi), Union Minister Anurag Thakur (Hamirpur), actor Ravi Kishan (Gorakhpur), SAD’s Harsimrat Kaur Badal (Bathinda), RJD’s Misa Bharti (Pataliputra) and TMC’s Abhishek Banerjee (Diamond Harbour) .

Around 10.06 crore electorate – approximately 5.24 crore male, 4.82 crore female and 3,574 third gender – are eligible to choose their parliamentary representatives from a pool of 908 candidates across 1.09 lakh polling stations.

The constituencies where polling is being held today include all the 13 LS seats of Punjab, four in Himachal Pradesh, and the lone constituency in the Union Territory of Chandigarh.

Voting is also being conducted in Uttar Pradesh (13 seats), West Bengal (9), Bihar (8), Odisha (6), and Jharkhand (3). The first three states have voted in all phases, where as 42 Assembly Constituencies of Odisha is also voting simultaneously.

The average number of contesting candidates in a parliamentary constituency for the seventh phase is 16.

“Today’s voting marks a grand finish to world’s largest polling marathon that began on 19th of last month and already covered 6 phases and 486 Lok Sabha seats. Polling for 28 States/UTs and 486 PCs has been completed in a smooth and peaceful manner,” the Election Commission of India said.

The votes for all the phases would be counted on June 4.

However, on Sunday, the vote count will take place for the Assembly polls in Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh

UNI