Campaigning ended at 6 pm on Thursday for the polls scheduled on Saturday in nine Lok Sabha constituencies: Dum Dum, Barasat, Basirhat, Jaynagar, Mathurapur, Diamond Harbour, Jadavpur, Kolkata Dakshin, and Kolkata Uttar.

"The state will have 10,343 polling locations with over 20,000 polling booths. Among these, 1,362 locations with 3,033 booths have been identified as critical and 51 booths as vulnerable, necessitating additional police presence," it said. 

Of the total 4,264 nominations filed from 93 parliamentary constituencies, the highest was filed from Telangana (1488), Andhra Pradesh with 1103 nominations from 25 constituencies. 

Harshad S Vengurlekar has been appointed for Gurdaspur parliamentary constituency, Bare Ganesh Sudhakar for Amritsar, Anurag Tripathi for Khadoor Sahib, Madhav Deshmukh for Jalandhar (SC), and Pawan Kumar Khetan for Hoshiarpur, Punjab Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Sibin C said. 

Tharoor, who was locked in a three-way contest with Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar of the BJP and P Raveendran of the CPI in Thiruvananthapuram where polling took place on April 26, said he is looking at a "very comfortable win".

"The exact number of temporary jobs created during the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections across the country would depend on various factors such as the scale of the election, the number of polling stations, and the requirements of election-related activities. However, on our platform, we anticipate at least 9 lakh jobs during the elections." 

Referring to a report of NGO 'Association of Democratic Reforms for the Lok Sabha elections 2024 Phase I and Phase II,' Hansaria, assisted by advocate Sneha Kalita, said that out of 2,810 candidates (Phase I - 1618 candidates and Phase II - 1192 candidates), 501 (18%) candidates have criminal cases against them, out of which, 327 (12%) are serious criminal cases (punishable with imprisonment of 5 years and more). 

The elections for the state are scheduled to take place in the third phase on May 7. 

Among these 13 faces representing the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Punjab for Lok Sabha polls, the party did not field any 'female' nominee.  

The poll panel cited the IMD and noted that there was a high probability of above-normal temperatures during the summer, "which may translate into stronger and longer spells of a heat wave, especially during March to June".

Key political highlights across India on Friday: PM Modi to Rally in Rajasthan's Churu, BJP Chief J.P. Nadda's Public Meeting in Haridwar, Congress Manifesto Release, Jharkhand CM Champai Soren to Announce JMM Candidates, Multi-Leader Rallies in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, and Haryana.

On the final day of nomination filing for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh, a total of 94 candidates submitted their papers, bringing the total count to 175 across the eight constituencies slated for polling on April 26.