Fifth phase of polling to elect 86 Members of Parliament

New Delhi, May 13 (ANI): Elections for the fifth and final phase of parliamentary elections for the 86 constituencies in seven States and two Union Territories began on Wednesday morning.

The seven states comprising Punjab (nine constituencies), Jammu and Kashmir (2), Uttar Pradesh (14), West Bengal (11), Himachal Pradesh (four constituencies), Tamil Nadu (39), Uttarakhand (5) and two Union Territories including Chandigarh (1) and Pudducherry (1) would complete voting in all the constituencies in this fifth and final phase.

In this last leg, there are 10.78 crore eligible voters who will choose their political representatives out of 1,432 candidates including 93 women.

The Chennai South constituency has the highest number of contestants (43) and in the case of women candidates it is Faridkot in Punjab (5).

In Uttar Pradesh, Muslim vote is set to play a crucial role in the fifth and final round of polling.

Unlike the previous four phases, no area or polling station will come under the naxal-infested belt this time.

Staggered polling, which began on April 16, has seen elections completed to 457 Lok Sabha seats and also stray violence in some parts of the country.

The final phase would see election of 86 MPs and among the contenders are Congress' P. Chidambaram and Md. Azharuddin, BJP's Maneka Gandhi and Varun Gandhi and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, DMK's T.R. Baalu, A. Raja, Dayanidhi Maran and M.K. Azhagiri, MDMK's Vaiko, TC chief Mamata Banerjee and Samajwadi Party's actor-turned politician Jayaprada.

Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar and Sajjad Gani Lone of People's Conference are the other prominent names in this final phase of elections which would see election of 86 MPs.

Polling has already completed for 457 Lok Sabha seats since the exercise commenced began on April 16 amid stray violence that left over 20 dead.

Counting of votes and results will be out on May 16.

Any party or a coalition requires 272 seats in the Lok Sabha to stake claim to form a government at the Centre.

The Lok Sabha has 545 members. But elections are held to 543 seats, as two members are nominated from the Anglo- Indian community. (ANI)