New Delhi, May 08: Amid predictions of a hung house, publicity guns fell silent this evening as one of the longest drawn election campaigns drew to a close for the final phase of Lok Sabha elections covering 182 seats in 16 states and union territories on May 10. As the campaigning ended at 5 pm, leaders and their supporters fanned out for canvassing in a last minute bid to woo an estimated 21.51 crore voters who will choose their representatives from 2,132 contestants including 149 women.

Elections would be held on Monday in the remaining 18 constituencies in Uttar Pradesh, 17 of 29 in Madhya Pradesh and the last two seats in Jammu and Kashmir.
Polling would also be held for all the seats in West Bengal (42), Tamil Nadu (39), Kerala (20), Punjab (13), Haryana (10), Delhi (seven), Uttaranchal (five), Himachal Pradesh (four) and one each in Lakshadweep, Pondicherry, Chandigarh, Assam (Silchar) and Sikkim.

Elections will also be held for 32-member Sikkim Assembly on Monday.


Leading Monday`s electoral race are stalwarts like CPI(M) veteran Somnath Chatterjee, seeking re-election from Bolpur, Dy Speaker of Lok Sabha P M Sayeed (Lakshadweep), Union Ministers Jagmohan, Sahib Singh Verma, Mamata Banerjee, B C Khanduri, Satyanarain Jatiya and I D Swami among others.

Also in the race are veterans like Congress` A B A Ghani Khan Chowdhury from Malda, Pranab Mukherjee from Jangipur in West Bengal and former Union Ministers P Chidambaram, Mani Shankar Aiyer, T R Baalu, Ajit Singh of RLD as also scion of royal family Jyotiraditya Scindia from Guna in Madhya Pradesh.


With poll surveys projecting the ruling NDA just short of majority in the 543-member house, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee campaigned in Himachal Pradesh seeking a "decisive mandate" for the NDA saying "each seat mattered."
Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani was in Pondicherry while BJP chief M Venkaiah Naidu was in Chennai even as BJP leaders Pramod Mahajan, Rajnath Singh and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi concentrated in Uttar Pradesh for the remaining 18 seats.

Congress` star campaigner Rahul Gandhi conducted road shows in Rampur for his party candidate Noor Bano while Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav canvassed in Shahjahanpur to shore up strength for his party.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi who criss-crossed the nation with a commitment for building a "resurgent India that is just and secular" addressed her last rally in the capital.

Elections have been held in 361 constituencies in three phases. Counting of votes will be taken up on May 13 and results are expected same day.

Bureau Report