Notification issued for 7th phase; Sonia, Modi in fray

Notification was issued today for the seventh phase of Lok Sabha polls to 89 constituencies spread across nine states on April 30 to decide the fate of political heavyweights like Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.
The Lucknow seat from where BJP President Rajnath Singh is contesting and Amritsar, from where Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley is pitted against former Punjab chief minister Amrinder Singh of Congress also go for polls on April 30.
The fate of BJP veteran Murli Manohar Joshi, who is contesting from Kanpur, Congress leader Ambika Soni (Anandpur Sahib) and BJP's Uma Bharti (Jhansi) will also be decided on that day.

While Gandhi today filed her nomination from Rae Bareli, Modi is contesting from Vadodara in Gujarat, besides Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh.
Out of the 89 constituencies, 17 are in Andhra Pradesh, 26 in Gujarat, seven in Bihar, one each in Jammu and Kashmir, Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, 13 in Punjab, 14 in Uttar Pradesh and nine in West Bengal.
With the issuance of notification, candidates can file nominations till April 9, while scrutiny of their papers will take place the next day.

April 12 is the last date of withdrawing from contest.
On April 12 another notification will be issued for the 8th phase of polling on May 7 in 64 constituencies in seven states.

The ninth and the last phase of general election will be held on May 12 in which electorate of 41 constituencies spread across three states will exercise their franchise. The notification for the last phase will be issued on April 17.