NEW DELHI: Campaigning for the fourth phase of the 17th Lok Sabha election ended on Saturday in 71 constituencies across nine States.

With Monday’s voting, the election will begin in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, and end in Maharashtra and Odisha. The counting of votes will take place on May 23.

In the fourth phase, five constituencies in Bihar, three in Jharkhand, six each in Madhya Pradesh and Odisha, eight in West Bengal, 17 in Maharashtra, and 13 each in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh will vote. In Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, the Congress and the BJP are face to face, while the contests in other States are more complex with the presence of regional parties.

Over three phases, 302 of the 543 constituencies have already voted. Among the key contests on Monday is Begusarai in Bihar, where former president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union Kanhaiya Kumar is the CPI candidate, against the BJP’s Giriraj Singh and the RJD’s Tanveer Hassan.

In Madhya Pradesh’s Chhindwara, Chief Minister Kamal Nath’s son Nakul Nath is the Congress candidate. The senior Nath has won nine times from the seat. In Kannauj in Uttar Pradesh, Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav’s wife Dimple Yadav, who is the sitting MP, is up against the BJP’s Subrat Pathak.