PM Modi Among Candidates In Final Voting For Election Today | Read

The country is witnessing pitched electoral battles in the final phase of the Lok Sabha polls today, with 10.17 crore people across seven states and a union territory eligible to vote to elect its next union government. The closely watched seats among these are Varanasi and Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh; Patna Sahib and Patiliputra in Bihar; Gurdaspur and Amritsar in Punjab; and nine in West Bengal that the BJP hopes to wrest to compensate for perceived losses in the Hindi heartland. The BJP and the Trinamool Congress workers had clashed in the eastern state earlier this week, following which the Election Commission cut short electoral campaigning amid protests by opposition parties. Among the main contestants in this phase of the election is Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who will be fighting to retain his parliamentary seat of Varanasi. "No, nothing. Yes, I do pray that all my countrymen are blessed by the lord," PM Modi said in Kedaarnath this morning, when asked he prayed for election victory.