All you need to know about Phase VII of polls

Over 10.01-crore voters are expected to cast their votes in about 1.12-lakh polling stations as 59 constituencies are set to go to polls in the seventh and the final phase of polling for the Lok Sabha elections on Sunday.

According to the Election Commission, altogether there are 918 candidates in the fray and represent the 59 constituencies spread over seven states and the Union Territory of Chandigarh.

The seventh phase will see eight constituencies in Bihar, four in Himachal Pradesh, three in Jharkhand, eight in Madhya Pradesh, 13 each in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, nine in West Bengal and one in Union Territory of Chandigarh going to polls.

It will mark the end of almost the six-week-long polling process, which began on April 11.

The ruling BJP had won 32 of the 59 constituencies in 2014, but later lost two of them in the bypolls to the Opposition Congress.

The candidates of the BJP's allies— the Akali Dal, the Janata Dal (United) and the Apna Dal— had won from six more constituencies out of the ones going to polls on Sunday.

The Congress had won five of the seats in 2014. The AAP had won four seats from Punjab, the SP one in Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha two in Jharkhand, Rashtriya Lok Samta Party two in Bihar. The Trinamool Congress had in 2014 won all the nine West Bengal seats that are going to polls in the final phase.

The prominent candidates, who are in the fray in this phase include Prime Minister and the BJP's bet in Varanasi, Narendra Modi; TMC chief Mamata Banerjee's nephew Abhishek Banerjee, who is contesting from Diamond Harbour in West Bengal and the JMM chief and the party's candidate in Dumka, Sibu Soren.

Three actors-turned-politicians— Shatrughan Sinha, Sunny Deol and Kirron Kher— are also among those who will have their fates sealed on Sunday.

Sinha is the Congress's bet against Union minister and BJP headyweight Ravi Shankar Prasad in Bihar's Patna Sahib. Deol is contesting against Sunil Jakhar of the Congress in Gurdaspur, Punjab. Kher is the BJP's candidate against Pawan Bansal of the Congress.

The EC is holding the polling for the Lok Sabha elections in seven phases.

Altogether 483 constituencies already went to the polls in six phases on April 11, 18, 23, 29, May 6 and May 12.

The polling percentage was on a decline from the first to the fifth phase— 69.57%, 69.44%, 68.40%, 65.50% and the 64.16% respectively. It went up a bit in the sixth phase, which registered a turnout of 64.40%.

The votes will be counted on May 23.

The polling is taking place for elections to 542 of the 543 elected seats in the Lok Sabha.

The EC cancelled the polling in Tamil Nadu's Vellore Lok Sabha constituency after seizure of a huge amount of money. The commission is yet to decide when the election would be held in the constituency, which was earlier scheduled to go to polls in the second phase.