Voting for seven constituencies has begun in the national capital, as part of the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha elections. Amidst the rising heatwave in the country, polling in Delhi began at 7 am and will continue till 6 pm.
Foreign Minister S Jaishankar voted in Delhi on Saturday for the sixth phase of Lok Sabha elections. S Jaishankar- who happened to be the first male voter at his designated polling booth - also got a certificate for voting. "I was the first male voter in this booth," Jaishankar said holding up his certificate.
Take a look at his post:
Cast my vote in New Delhi this morning.
Urge all voting today to turnout in record numbers and vote in this sixth phase of the elections. pic.twitter.com/FJpskspGq9
The Foreign Minister expressed confidence that Delhi people will once again back the Modi government.
"We urge people to come out and vote because this is a critical moment for the country. "I am confident that the BJP will regain power in the elections," he stated.
Voting is taking place today in eight seats each in Bihar and Bengal, seven in Delhi, 10 in Haryana, four in Jharkhand, 14 in Uttar Pradesh, and the final seat in Jammu & Kashmir -- Anantnag-Rajouri, where poling was moved from the third to the sixth phase.
Over 11 crore voters will decide the fate of 889 candidates contesting in Phase 6 of the general elections across 58 seats.
Among the prominent candidates in this phase are Union ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and Rao Inderjit Singh, BJP's Maneka Gandhi, Sambit Patra, Manohar Khattar and Manoj Tiwari, Mehbooba Mufti and Congress's Kanhaiya Kumar. The last phase of voting will take place on June 1, following which counting of votes will take place on June 4.
In 2019, the Congress failed to win any of these 58 seats in Phase 6 of polling. The BJP won 40 seats while its NDA allies won five seats. In terms of vote share, the BJP-led NDA got 51.36 per cent of the vote share. The INDIA bloc parties could manage 28.66 per cent vote share in Phase 6 of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.