Voting has concluded in 542 Lok Sabha constituencies with polling coming to an end in the final round of the General elections that began 38 days ago on April 11.
Fifty-nine seats in eight states went to polling in the final round.
Incidents of violence were reported across West Bengal, Punjab and Bihar. Bombing incidents allegedly took place outside Basirhat polling booth, in Mathurapur village and in Islampur, where bypolls are underway. A BJP camp was also set to fire in Barasat. Meanwhile, in Basirhat, BJP alleged that 100 voters were barred from casting their votes.
EVM malfunction across Punjab and Bihar were reported. Reports of violent clashes between workers of various parties are coming in from Punjab, Bihar, and Madhya Pradesh, too.
Polling was held in Punjab (all 13 seats) and an equal number of seats in Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal (9), eight seats each in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh (4 seats), Jharkhand (3) and the lone seat Chandigarh.
Apart from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, contesting from Varanasi, some of the key contestants from among the 918 candidates fighting in this round, are Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, BJP rebel who joined the Congress Shatrughan Sinha, former Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar; Misa Bharti, daughter of former Bihar chief minister Lalu Yadav, Congress leader Manish Tewari, former Punjab chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal and BJP leader Kirron Kher, among others.