Watch: Smriti Irani casts her vote in Amethi in 5th phase of Lok Sabha elections

Smriti Irani on Monday cast her vote at a polling booth in Uttar Pradesh's Amethi during the fifth phase of voting for the Lok Sabha election.

Union minister Smriti Irani on Monday cast her vote at a polling booth in Uttar Pradesh's Amethi during the fifth phase of voting for the Lok Sabha election 2024. In a video posted by news agency ANI, Smriti Irani can be seen queuing up at the polling booth.

Smriti Irani casts her vote in Amethi

Earlier in the day, Smriti Irani urged people to exercise their franchise in the fifth phase of voting.

“Festival of democracy, pride of the nation…Today is the day of the fifth phase of voting for the Lok Sabha elections. All respected voters are requested to definitely vote. Your every vote will form the basis of a 'developed India' and will prove invaluable in making India a leader and self-reliant on the global stage,” she wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter).

Irani, who is contesting the Lok Sabha election from the Amethi seat, is pitted against Congress candidate KL Sharma, a long-time loyalist of the Gandhi family. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has also fielded Nanhe Singh Chauhan from the seat.

In 2019, the union minister had defeated former Congress president Rahul Gandhi in Amethi.

Fifth phase of voting in Uttar Pradesh

Voting for the 14 Uttar Pradesh Lok Sabha seats is underway in the fifth round of the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections. The 14 seats contesting in the fifth phase include - Mohanlalganj, Lucknow, Rae Bareli, Amethi, Jalaun, Jhansi, Hamirpur, Banda, Fatehpur, Barabanki, Kaushambi, Faizabad, Kaiserganj, and Gonda.

Notably, Uttar Pradesh, the state with the highest representation in the 543-member Lok Sabha, is the only state with West Bengal and Bihar to hold polling in all the phases.

Some of the other key candidates from Uttar Pradesh include Congress leader Rahul Gandhi from Rae Bareli, defence minister Rajnath Singh from Lucknow and Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh's son Karan Bhushan Singh from Kaiserganj.

(With inputs from ANI)