The eighth and penultimate phase of polling on Wednesday saw heavy turnout as the preceding phases.
It was a crucial phase for the Bharatiya Janata Party, which wanted to put up a good show in the 15 constituencies in Uttar Pradesh and seven in Bihar in furtherance of its plan to become the single largest party in the new Lok Sabha.
The highest turnout of 81.28 per cent was recorded in West Bengal, where six constituencies went to the polls. In Seemandhra, polling took place in 25 Lok Sabha and 175 Assembly constituencies.
After Wednesday’s phase, voting has been completed in 502 of the 543 Lok Sabha constituencies. The remaining 41 seats will go to the polls in the last phase on May 12.
In Bihar, 56 per cent voting was recorded. The four seats in Himachal Pradesh witnessed 65 per cent polling and the five in Uttarakhand 62 per cent.
The two seats in Jammu and Kashmir that went to the polls on Wednesday registered a turnout of close to 50 per cent.
Uttar Pradesh recorded a turnout of nearly 56 per cent against 44 per cent in 2009. In the previous election, the Congress won seven of the 15 seats, and the BJP none.
The Congress holds nearly half the 64 seats that went to the polls in this phase.
