Voting began on Monday across 51 Lok Sabha constituencies spread over seven states, largely in the Hindi heartland, in the fifth of the mega seven-phase electoral exercise.

Among the 674 candidates in this phase, prominent ones include Congress president Rahul Gandhi from his traditional Amethi constituency where he faces union minister Smriti Irani, his mother and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi from neighbouring Rae Bareli, and union home minister Rajnath Singh who faces actor-politician Shatrughan Sinha's wife Poonam Sinha (Samajwadi Party) in Lucknow.

A total electorate of over 8.75 crore is eligible to exercise their franchise in this phase which covers the remaining 12 constituencies in Rajasthan, as well as 14 in Uttar Pradesh, including the high-profile Amethi, Rae Bareli and Lucknow seats, five in Bihar, and seven in West Bengal.

Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh go in for their second phase of polls with voting in four and seven constituencies, respectively.

Voting is also being held in the final phase of the three stage polling in Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag, as well as the state's Ladakh constituency.

Militants on Monday lobbed a grenade towards a polling station in Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir where polling is underway for the Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency, police said.

A grenade was lobbed towards Rohmoo polling station in Pulwama but there were no reports of any casualties in the the blast, a police official said.

This was the first militant attack on a polling station in this Lok Sabha election in Jammu and Kashmir.

The stakes are high for the ruling BJP and its allies as it had swept 40 of these seats in 2014, leaving just two for the Congress and the rest for other opposition parties such as the Trinamool Congress (seven).

Here are the latest voter turnout figures:

West Bengal - 74.32% (6 PM)

Madhya Pradesh - 64% (6 PM)

Bihar - 57.76% (6 PM)

Jharkhand - 64.58% (6 PM)

Jammu and Kashmir - 17.07% (6 PM)

Uttar Pradesh - 57% (6 PM)

Rajasthan -63.69% (6 PM)

(With inputs from agencies)

First Published:May 6, 2019 10:18 AM IST