New Delhi, 23 April 2014

The second biggest phase of the staggered electoral fight to govern India will play out on Thursday, giving more than 180 million voters the right to have their say across 117 Lok Sabha seats. Voters across 11 states and Union Territory Puducherry will decide the political fortunes of 2,076 candidates in round six.

The Congress had won 36 of these 117 seats in 2009, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) 26, the DMK 18, the AIADMK 9 and the Samajwadi Party 5.

Voting for 349 of the 543 Lok Sabha seats will be completed with this phase, leaving the last three stages.

Tamil Nadu will see voting for all its 39 seats in one go.

Maharashtra’s final chunk of 19 seats, including six in Mumbai, is on the line.

In Uttar Pradesh, voting will take place across 12 seats.

The voting process in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh will end with the final tranche of 10 seats.

The voting process will also end in Chhattisgarh (7 seats), Assam (6 seats), Rajasthan (5 seats) and Jharkhand (4 seats).

In Bihar, polling will be held for 7 seats.

In West Bengal, voting will be held for 6 seats.

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader Mehbooba Mufti is the big name in the Anantnag contest in Jammu and Kashmir.