India enters final stages of mammoth election as Phase 5 voting begins

The first four phases of the election have already decided the fate of 379 of 543 members of the Lok Sabha.

So far, voting has concluded for all the seats in the southern states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka; the southern union territories of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, Lakshadweep, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Puducherry; and all the northeastern states of Meghalaya, Assam, Manipur, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura.

Elections have also concluded in Uttarakhand in the north, Chhattisgarh in central India, and Goa, Gujarat and Rajasthan states in the west.

Phase 6 of the vote will be held on May 25 and the election then heads towards the seventh and final phase on June 1.