The Election Commission issued the notification for the seventh and the last phase of polling to the Lok Sabha on Monday. The 59 Parliamentary constituencies which will vote in this phase include the Varanasi — where Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seeking a re-election to the Lok Sabha, and Patna Sahib —where former BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha is now contesting on a Congress ticket.

The 59 Parliamentary constituencies in eight States and Union territories will go to the polls on 19 May.

The fight in Varanasi could hot up with Congress’ general secretary in-charge Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, indicating she could consider fighting from Varanasi if Congress President directs her. With the notification being issued for Varanasi, all eyes will now be on whether Priyanka enters the fray.

The seventh phase will see all 13 Parliamentary constituencies in Punjab, 13 seats in Uttar Pradesh, nine in West Bengal, eight seats each in Madhya Pradesh and Bihar, four in Himachal Pradesh and three in Jharkhand going to polls. The lone seat in Chandigarh will also go to polls on May 19.

Among the other seats in the last phase of the elections are Amritsar, from where former diplomat and Union Minister Hardeep Puri will contest. This will be his first Lok Sabha polls. Gorakhpur, which is the former Lok Sabha seat of current UP CM Yogi Adityanath, will be important for both the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) alliance and the BJP. In 2018, the SP had won the Gorakhpur by-poll after Adityanath vacated the seat to take over as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.

The counting for all the seven phases is scheduled for May 23. There could be some delay in announcing the final results as the Supreme Court has directed that five EVMs and VVPATs in every constituency will be counted.

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