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.
Bureau Report