Lok Sabha elections: On Monday, 96 Lok Sabha constituencies across nine states and one Union territory went to the polls, marking the fourth phase of the ongoing general elections. Voting for all Assembly seats of Andhra Pradesh and 28 Assembly seats of Odisha also began simultaneously.

A total of 175 seats of the State Legislative Assembly of Andhra Pradesh are up for voting today, taking the total number of polling stations in the state to 46,389 for both the Lok Sabha elections and the Assembly polls.

1) As many as 1,717 candidates are in the fray for today’s Lok Sabha election contest across 96 constituencies. Of the 96 seats, the highest belong to Andhra at 25, followed by 17 from Telangana, 13 from Uttar Pradesh, and 11 from Maharashtra. Additionally, eight will go to polls from Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal, five from Bihar, four from Jharkhand and Odisha, and one from Jammu and Kashmir.

2) The phase four polling will witness a high-stake battle between several heavyweights in many constituencies. Some of these include popular leaders such as  Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, West Bengal Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, TMC leader Mahua Moitra, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, BJP leader Giriraj Singh, TMC leaders Shatrughan Sinha and Yusuf Pathan, and Janata Dal United’s Rajiv Ranjan Singh (Lalan Singh).