9.30 pm: Here are the day’s top updates:

  • The Communist Party of India (Marxist) urged the Election Commission to take action against Narendra Modi for his remarks about the Balakot airstrike. In an interview, Modi had claimed to have given the Indian Air Force the green signal to proceed with airstrikes despite bad weather because “the clouds could actually help our planes escape the radars”.  
  • BJP chief Amit Shah accused former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of taking no action when “Pakistan beheaded five Indian soldiers” in 2013. 
  • Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi told reporters after casting her vote in Delhi that it is “very clear” that the BJP is losing the polls. Gandhi said people were “angry and distressed” with the party.
  • Bharati Ghosh, the BJP candidate from Ghatal in West Bengal, alleged that she was attacked by Trinamool Congress workers. She suffered minor injuries.
  • BJP candidate from Ratlam-Jhabua Lok Sabha constituency, Guman Singh Damor, claimed that partition would not have occurred had Muhammad Ali Jinnah been appointed the prime minister. 
  • Narendra Modi asked at a rally in Uttar Pradesh if “his jawan” should seek the Election Commission’s permission to handle terrorists standing with bombs and guns in front of him. He was referring to a gunfight on Sunday morning in Shopian district of Jammu and Kashmir, in which two militants were killed.  

9.18 pm: The overall poll percentage stands at 63.26%, according to the Election Commission’s Voter Turnout app.

State-wise turnout figures are:

Bihar: 59.29%

Haryana: 67.40%

Madhya Pradesh: 64.44%

Uttar Pradesh: 54.72%

West Bengal: 80.35%

Jharkhand: 64.50%

Delhi: 59.54%

8.53 pm: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath claims that the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and the Congress looted public resources and built big bungalows for themselves using government money, PTI reports. “These parties have never done any work in public interest,” he says.

8.22 pm: Mayawati asks voters to defeat both the BJP and the Congress in the ongoing elections, PTI reports. “The Congress, which ruled the country for a major period after Independence, could not solve the main problems of poverty and unemployment,” she says at a rally in Nawanshahr town in Punjab. “The BJP government did not fulfill even a single promise it made in the 2014 elections.”

7.55 pm: Re-polling was held at an election booth in Dharmaj village in Anand Lok Sabha seat in Gujarat on Sunday, PTI reports. The re-polling had to be conducted after reports of bogus voting at the booth during the fourth phase of elections on April 23.

7.29 pm: BJP workers in Jaunpur town in Uttar Pradesh attacked a policeman after he allegedly wiped his shoe with the party’s flag, Mirror Now reports. The workers also threw a cap at the policeman.

7.18 pm: Congress leader Mallikarjuna Kharge has courted controversy by asking if Narendra Modi will hang himself at Vijay Chowk in Delhi if the Congress wins more than 40 seats. “Wherever he goes, he keeps saying that Congress will not win 40 seats. Do you believe that?” Kharge says at a rally in Karnataka’s Kalburgi according to NDTV. “If Congress gets more than 40 seats, will Modi hang himself at Vijay Chowk in Delhi?”

7.09 pm: The voter turnout at this time stands at 61.15%.

State-wise turnout figures are:

Bihar: 59.29%

Haryana: 62.91%

Madhya Pradesh: 60.40%

Uttar Pradesh: 53.37%

West Bengal: 80.16%

Jharkhand: 64.46%

Delhi: 56.21%

6.54 pm: Unidentified people have allegedly tried to attack Sanjay Jaiswal, BJP candidate from West Champaran Parliamentary constituency in Bihar, with sticks ANI reports. The incident took place outside two polling booths.

6.45 pm: Karnataka Congress leader BZ Zameer Ahmed Khan claims 10 BJP legislators are in touch with him, PTI reports. He adds that Karnataka BJP chief BS Yeddyurappa is “daydreaming” about coming to power. Yeddyurappa had said on Saturday that 20 Congress MLAs will desert the party after the Lok Sabha polls.

6.30 pm: The BJP has demanded the resignation of Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot following the Alwar gangrape case, PTI reports. “We are condemning the Rajasthan rape incident of a Dalit woman, which was first kept a secret just because there was voting on May 6,” Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad says.

6 pm: The overall polling percentage at this time stands at 59.70%, according to the Election Commission’s Voter Turnout app.

State-wise turnout figures are:

Bihar: 55.04%

Haryana: 62.12%

Madhya Pradesh: 60.12%

Uttar Pradesh: 50.82%

West Bengal: 80.13%

Jharkhand: 64.46%

Delhi: 55.44%

5.57 pm: Congress leader and Bhopal candidate Digvijaya Singh admits that he could not go to Rajgarh to cast his vote and expresses regret, ANI reports. “Next time I will register my name in Bhopal,” he says.

5.53 pm: The Goa BJP has alleged that Opposition parties are trying to create a rift within it by using the name of late Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar’s son Utpal Parrikar, PTI reports. “No one projected the name of Utpal Parrikar [for Panaji by-polls on May 19],” Goa BJP chief Vinay Tendulkar tells reporters in Panaji. “ His name, along with that [Siddharth] Kunkolienkar, was discussed and then recommended to the BJP central committee, which chose Kunkolienkar.”

5.45 pm: In Khandwa town in Madhya Pradesh, Modi claims that the state has two-and-a-half chief ministers, ANI reports. “Administration doesn’t even know whose orders are to be followed,” he says. “Goons, murderers and dacoits have been given licence.”

5.35 pm: CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury has written to the Election Commission, claiming that Narendra Modi’s statement that he approved the Indian Air Force’s cross-border strikes in Balakot despite inclement weather, is a violation of the Model Code of Conduct, PTI reports. Yechury claims that Modi shared operational details of a sensitive defence mission in a television interview to influence voters.

5.30 pm: Communist Party of India (Marxist) Tamil Nadu Secretary R Mutharasan claims that the Lok Sabha results will “send both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister K Palaniswami home”, PTI reports. Mutharasan alleges that Modi is pursuing anti-people policies like the sterlite copper plant, and methane projects in Tamil Nadu.

5.20 pm: North East Delhi constituency Returning Officer Shashi Kaushal says the all-women staffed booths have been a success, PTI reports. “We have set up a pink booth in Zeenat School in an area which is a very Muslim-dominated one,” she says. “And, in the morning a large number of ‘pardanasheen’ [veiled] women came to vote. It was so enthusing to see the women in ‘burqa’ queuing up to exercise their franchise and celebrating the democratic exercise.”

5.10 pm: Narendra Modi alleges that those who were responsible for the deaths of thousands of people in the 1986 Bhopal gas tragedy were flown out of India during Congress rule, the BJP tweets. “Even about this matter, they will say, ‘hua toh hua’ [it happened, so what?],” he adds.

5 pm: At this time, 51.99% of the electorate has cast their vote around the country.

State-wise turnout figures are:

Bihar: 46.26%

Haryana: 54.66%

Madhya Pradesh: 54.41%

Uttar Pradesh: 44.03%

West Bengal: 70.88%

Jharkhand: 58.32%

Delhi: 45.47%

4.49 pm: BJP chief Amit Shah asserts at a rally in Shimla that the party will scrap Article 370 of the Indian Constitution if it comes to power, PTI reports. Article 370 grants special status to the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

4.40 pm: Punjab Chief Minister Amrinder Singh rejects Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal’s accusation that the Congress has been disrupting her election rallies, PTI reports. “The anger of the people who had been victimised for 10 years by the Badals and their cronies are now finding voice,” he says in Chandigarh.

4.29 pm: Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati accuses Narendra Modi of doing “dirty politics” over the Alwar gangrape, PTI reports. Modi had earlier in the day asked Mayawati to break her alliance with the Congress in Rajasthan.

4.21 pm: Congress’ Bhopal candidate Digvijaya Singh is yet to cast his vote in Rajgarh, ANI reports. “I will see. I will try to reach [Rajgarh],” he says when reporters question him.

4 pm: The Election Commission says that the overall voter turnout at 4 pm has reached 50.74%.

State-wise turnout figures are:

Bihar: 44.40%

Haryana: 51.80%

Madhya Pradesh: 52.62%

Uttar Pradesh: 43.26%

West Bengal: 70.51%

Jharkhand: 58.08%

Delhi: 45.22%

3.50 pm: Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi meets West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer Aariz Aftab, ANI reports. “We have demanded that outsiders be not allowed in Lok Sabha constituencies, 48 hours before the elections, and that history-sheeters be arrested,” he tells the media following the meeting. “Our [Ghatal] candidate Bharati Ghosh’s car was stopped, have demanded action against the officers involved.”

3.45 pm: Mamata Banerjee claims that BJP workers and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh activists are being “pushed into West Bengal” in the guise of deploying central forces, PTI reports.

3.26 pm: Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti says Narendra Modi’s comments about clouds helping the Indian Air Force jets escape Pakistani radar during the Balakot operation were “painfully embarrassing”.

“No secret that Balakot strikes failed to hit the intended target,” the Peoples Democratic Party chief tweets. “Was it because the prime minister overruled the advice of IAF and authorised air strikes in bad weather?”

3.12 pm: Names of many people in Delhi have been found missing from the voter’s list, PTI reports. Delhi Chief Electoral Officer Ranbir Singh says his office had been telling people to check their names in voter lists for the last six months.

“They should have checked names before going to vote,” he says. “If their names were not there they should have filled form 6. We were accepting forms till April 13.”

3 pm: At 3 pm, the overall polling percentage stands at 41.25%, according to the Election Commission’s Voter Turnout app.

State-wise turnout figures are:

Bihar: 35.97%

Haryana: 42.57%

Madhya Pradesh: 44.46%

Uttar Pradesh: 35.95%

West Bengal: 56.11%

Jharkhand: 47.86%

Delhi: 34.03%

2.46 pm: Complaints about malfunctioning EVMs have been reported from several places in Delhi, says PTI.

Malviya Nagar MLA Somnath Bharti alleges in a tweet that EVMs at booths 116,117 and 122 were not functioning. Mudit Agarwal, son of Congress’s Chandni Chowk candidate JP Agarwal, claims EVMs malfunctioned at some booths in Matia Mahal and Ballimaran areas.

Adarsh Gupta, a resident of Matia Mahal, tells PTI that EVMs were not working in the morning at polling booths No 84, 85 and 86.

Delhi Chief Electoral Officer Ranbir Singh says 5.5% of EVMs were replaced in the morning after mock polling.

2.30 pm: Aam Aadmi Party’s South Delhi candidate Raghav Chadha alleges that BJP workers have been moving around in a polling booth in Sangam Vihar locality, ANI reports. He says a BJP worker voted four times. “We identified eight to ten such people and caught one red handed. Ramesh Bidhuri [BJP candidate] is losing badly so is indulging in such tactics.” he adds.

2.22 pm: The Election Commission says that the overall voter turnout at this time stands at 39.74%.

State-wise turnout figures are:

Bihar: 35.22%

Haryana: 39.16%

Madhya Pradesh: 42.27%

Uttar Pradesh: 34.30%

West Bengal: 55.77%

Jharkhand: 47.16%

Delhi: 33.65%

2.09 pm: BJP candidate from Bhopal Pragya Thakur casts her vote at a polling booth in the city, PTI reports. Thakur, an accused in the 2008 Malegaon blasts case, has been fielded against the Congress’ Digvijaya Singh.

1.55 pm: “The Congress cut off the heads of our jawans in earlier days,” Modi says at a rally in Deoria. “Now, they want to be ‘vote katwa’ [cut votes].”

1.40 pm: Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi says there has been an attempt in West Bengal to stop BJP leaders and supporters. He criticises the Election Commission for not taking action against violence. “We have not seen such violence in other states as we have witnessed in Bengal,” he says, according to News18. “It is clear that the importance of the Election Commission will be lost after May 23. We will ask the Election Commission for repoll and complain against the outsiders called by TMC, who was part of the violence.”

1.30 pm: “Those who want to know Modi’s caste, please listen, Modi has only one caste – poverty,” the prime minister says.

1.25 pm: The Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party are incapable of taking on terrorists, says PM Modi.

“There are eight people who are contesting elections and say they will become the prime minister,” Modi says. “Those who are contesting on 20 seats are also dreaming about becoming the prime minister. These people cannot even control street goons, how will they act against terrorism?”

1.20 pm: Narendra Modi addresses a public meeting at Deoria city in Uttar Pradesh. “The Modi government has made all kinds of laws to make it difficult for the corrupt to escape,” he says.

1.18 pm: West Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh claims Trinamool Congress workers attacked him. “At a booth in Rampura, my people were being threatened since yesterday so I went to meet,” ANI quotes Ghosh as saying. “TMC goons attacked us, we were stopped from going inside the booth. They are stopping people from voting.”

1.15 pm: Manmohan Singh did not do anything when Pakistan beheaded five Indian soldiers but under under the Narendra Modi government airstrikes were conducted in Balakot, says Shah in Chamba, according to PTI.

1.10 pm: Prakash Javadekar says Mamata Banerjee cannot be the prime minister as she will not even win the West Bengal elections. “They [the Opposition] met in Delhi and complained about EVMs, this shows that they have already lost the elections, people will give a mandate to BJP. BJP alone will get 300 plus seats,” he claims.

1.08 pm: BJP leader Prakash Javadekar claims BJP Ghatal candidate Bharti Ghosh was not allowed to visit the polling booth. “This shows that the Trinamool Congress is rattled,” Javadekar says at a press conference, according to News18. “Mamata Banerjee used to say there is an expiry date of prime minister but the way they [Trinamool Congress] are conducting elections shows the expiry date of Mamata.”

12.58 pm: Amit Shah addresses rally in district in Himachal Pradesh. “This is the first election where the Opposition is not talking about inflation,” Shah says. “The Modi government has worked in such a way in the past five years that the topic of inflation has disappeared. Corruption is also not talked about.”

12.50 pm: The chief electoral officer of West Bengal seeks reports from the West Midnapore district magistrate about the alleged attack on BJP Ghatal candidate Bharati Ghosh, PTI reports. Ghosh reportedly suffered minor injuries when she tried to take a BJP agent inside a polling booth at Keshpur area and a group of women allegedly attacked her.

Bombs were also hurled at her convoy when she was on her way to visit another booth at Dogachia.

12.36 pm: Bhopal mayor Alok Sharma wears a badge of the BJP’s lotus symbol while casting his vote at Jain Nagar’s booth number 182, Firstpost reports.

12.33 pm: The estimated overall voter turnout at 11 am is 25.13%.

State-wise turnout figures are:

Bihar: 20.70%

Haryana: 23.30%

Madhya Pradesh: 28.21%

Uttar Pradesh: 21.75%

West Bengal: 38.26%

Jharkhand: 31.27%

Delhi: 19.55%

12.25 pm: Modi says the Opposition parties will “fall flat” in the Lok Sabha elections. “This is because people are voting for an effective and honest government,” he says.

He said he had been the chief minister of Gujarat for more terms than that of Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati as chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh combined. He claimed there was no blot of corruption on him, PTI reports.

12.20 pm: Addressing a crowd in Kushinagar district in Uttar Pradesh, Modi says Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati is shedding “crocodile tears” over Alwar gangrape. “Why does BSP not withdraw support from the Congress government in Rajasthan?” Modi says.

On April 26, five men had allegedly accosted a couple travelling on a motorcycle, and raped the woman and thrashed her husband at an isolated spot. One of the accused recorded the crime and uploaded it on social media.

The woman’s family alleged that they approached the police on April 30 to file a complaint, but the police did not take timely action and asked the couple to wait till after May 6, when the elections in Alwar were held. The police made the first arrest in the case on May 7.

12.15 pm: Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra casts her vote in Delhi. “It is very clear that the BJP government is going, people’s anger will be expressed through voting,” she says after casting her vote, PTI reports.

12 pm: Modi says, “An armed terrorist is attacking, do my jawans go to the Election Commission to seek permission to kill him?”

Read more here: ‘Will my jawan ask EC before killing terrorists?’ Narendra Modi says ‘cleansing’ in J&K is his job

11.55 am: Modi addresses a rally in Uttar Pradesh’s Kushinagar district. “There were reports this morning that security forces killed some militants in Kashmir,” the prime minister says. “But some people are complaining that why is Modi fighting militants when elections are under way.”

Modi was referring to a gunfight that broke out on Sunday morning in Shopian district of Jammu and Kashmir in which two militants were killed.

11.45 am: There is a scuffle between workers of the BJP and Trinamool Congress at a polling booth in Bankura, West Bengal, after the BJP alleges rigging, ANI reports.

11.42 am: The overall voter turnout at 11 am is 24.80%. State-wise turnout figures are:

Bihar: 20.70%

Haryana: 22.63%

Madhya Pradesh: 27.59%

Uttar Pradesh: 21.75%

West Bengal: 38.08%

Jharkhand: 31.27%

Delhi: 18.76%

10.40 am: Union minister and BJP leader Sushma Swaraj and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal cast their vote in Delhi.

10.25 am: Congress President Rahul Gandhi says the election was fought on key issues including demonetisation, farmer problems, “Gabbar Singh Tax” and corruption in Rafale jet deal. “Narendra Modi used hatred in the campaign and we used love and I am confident love will win,” Gandhi tells reporters after casting his vote, ANI reports.

10.15 am: Reports say stones were thrown at BJP’s Bharati Ghosh outside a polling station in Dogachia of Ghatal constituency. Ghosh’s car was also reportedly vandalised. Ghosh is the BJP candidate from Ghatal.

Ghosh was spotted at a polling station taking pictures inside the booth with her mobile phone, the Hindustan Times reported.

10.12 pm: Congress’ New Delhi Lok Sabha candidate Ajay Maken says his party will win all the seven seats in Delhi. Maken is contesting against BJP’ Meenakshi Lekhi and AAP’s Brijesh Goyal.

10.10 am: AAP candidate Atishi Marlena and Delhi BJO unit chief Manoj Tiwari cast their votes in the national Capital.

10.07 am: Congress President Rahul Gandhi arrives to cast his vote at a polling booth in NP Senior Secondary School in Aurangzeb Lane, ANI reports.

9.55 am: BJP East Delhi candidate Gautam Gambhir tweets, “Done my bit !! It’s your turn now.. #GoVoteDelhi.”

9.35 am: The overall voter turnout at 9 am is 10.15%. State-wise turnout figures are:

Bihar: 9.03%

Haryana: 8.26%

Madhya Pradesh: 11.34%

Uttar Pradesh: 8.27%

West Bengal: 16.68%

Jharkhand: 15.36%

Delhi: 7.26%

9.29 am: President Ram Nath Kovind casts his vote at a polling booth at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, ANI reports.

9.28 am: An argument breaks out between BJP candidate Maneka Gandhi and mahagathbandhan candidate Sonu Singh in Sultanpur, ANI reports. Gandhi had alleged that Singh’s supporters were threatening voters.

9.25 am: Uttar Pradesh minister Sidharth Nath Singh casts his vote in Prayagraj, ANI reports. Congress leader Sheila Dikshit casts her vote in Delhi. She is her party’s candidate in North East Delhi.

8.20 am: “This is a battle of faith,” BJP’s Bhopal candidate Pragya Thakur tells reporters after casting her vote. She urges people to come out and vote in large numbers. “We will win the Lok Sabha polls with majority and PM Narendra Modi will be re-elected.”

8.10 am: BJP’s East Delhi candidate Gautam Gambhir casts his vote at a polling booth in Old Rajinder Nagar. He is up against AAP’s Atishi Marlena and Congress candidate Arvinder Singh Lovely.

8.08 am: A BJP worker was found dead in Gopiballabpur village in Jhargram district of West Bengal on Saturday night. Jhargram goes to vote today.

Read more here: West Bengal: BJP worker found dead in Jhargram, party accuses Trinamool Congress

8.05 am: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal sends legal notice to BJP’s East Delhi candidate Gautam Gambhir for allegedly making defamatory remarks against him, The Hindu reports. The notice is in connection with Gambhir’s tweets where he said, “You are filth CM and someone needs your own jhadu [broom] to clean your dirty mind.”

The notice demands Gambhir to tender a written apology to Kejriwal in person. It also asks the cricketer-turned-politician to share on his social media account “true and correct” facts within 24 hours of the receipt of the notice, failing which legal proceedings will be initiated.

7.55 am: Congress general secretary Jyotiraditya Scindia is seeking reelection from Guna constituency in Madhya Pradesh. He is fielded against BJP’s KP Yadav.

7.40 am: Re-polling at 168 polling stations of Tripura West constituency and one polling station each of Puducherry, Barrackpur, and Arambag parliamentary constituencies will be held on Sunday, ANI reports.

7.25 am: Prime Minister Narendra Modi urges citizens to vote today. “Yet another phase of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections is here!” he says on Twitter. “Urging all those whose constituencies are polling in today’s sixth phase to go out and vote. I hope youngsters are voting in record numbers. After all, their participation makes the polls even more special.”

Union minister Rajnath Singh tweets, “I am hopeful that people will come out in large numbers to exercise their franchise. Every vote matters!”

7.20 am: In Haryana, the BJP had won seven of the ten seats in 2014. These polls are important for both BJP and Congress ahead of the Assembly elections in the state later this year.

7.18 am: Over 10.17 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in this phase, PTI reports. More than 1.13 lakh polling stations have been set up for smooth conduct of the polls.

7.15 am: All seven seats in Delhi – New Delhi, South Delhi, East Delhi, West Delhi, Chandni Chowk, North West Delhi and North East Delhi – vote today. The BJP had swept all seven seats in the 2014 General Elections.

All seats will have a triangular contest between the BJP, Aam Aadmi Party and Congress, after talks between the AAP and Congress for an alliance in the Capital failed.

7.15 am: In Bhopal Lok Sabha seat, the contest is between senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh and BJP candidate Pragya Singh Thakur. Thakur is an accused in the Malegaon blasts.

The BJP has won the constituency eight times since 1989.

7.10 am: Voting for the sixth phase of Lok Sabha elections begins, ANI reports.