New Delhi: Fifty-nine constituencies across 8 states will go to polls in the seventh and last phase of the Lok Sabha elections on Sunday. 918 candidates are in the fray and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is looking forward to retaining his seat in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh.

Voting is underway in all 13 seats in Punjab, 13 seats in Uttar Pradesh, nine in West Bengal, eight in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, four in Himachal Pradesh, three in Jharkhand and one in Chandigarh.

Highlight

1. Voter turnout till 12 PM 

Bihar: 18.90%
Himachal Pradesh 27.84%
Madhya Pradesh 29.48%
Punjab 23.45%
Uttar Pradesh 23.16%
West Bengal 32.53%
Jharkhand 31.39%
Chandigarh 22.30%
 

2. Over 10.01 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise. The Election Commission has set up more than 1.12 lakh polling stations and has deployed security personnel for smooth conduct of polls.

3. In Uttar Pradesh, all eyes are on Varanasi, where besides Modi, 25 other candidates are in fray. Modi's main challengers are Congress's Ajay Rai and SP-BSP grand alliance's nominee Shalini Yadav.

Union minister Manoj Sinha, Uttar Pradesh BJP chief Mahendra Nath Pandey are seeking re-election from Ghazipur and Chandauli respectively.

4. SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal and union ministers Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Hardeep Singh Puri are among the 278 candidates including 24 women whose fate is being decided in Punjab.

5. Besides Punjab, more than 6 lakh voters in the union territory of Chandigarh will choose between sitting MP and BJP candidate Kirron Kher and former railway minister and Congress candidate Pawan Kumar Bansal.

6. Actor-turned-politician Sunny Deol, Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jakhar, Aam Aadmi Party's Punjab unit chief Bhagwant Mann are among other prominent candidates in the fray.

7. An electorate of 1,49,63,064 will decide the fate of 111 candidates in nine seats of West Bengal -- Kolkata North and Kolkata South, Dum Dum, Barasat, Basirhat, Jadavpur, Diamond Harbour, Jaynagar (SC) and Mathurapur (SC).

8. As many as four Union ministers -- Ravi Shankar Prasad, Ram Kripal Yadav, RK Singh and Ashwini Kumar Choubey -- are among the 157 candidates in Bihar.

9. The electoral fortunes of 42 candidates including that of former chief minister and Union minister Shibu Soren are being decided in Jharkhand.

10. An average of 66.88 per cent voters exercised their franchise in the last six phases.

(With Inputs from PTI)