Amid the sweltering heat and high-pitch political rhetorics and promises by contestants in the fray, over 8.95 crore voters in 49 Parliament constituencies spread in Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal will cast their vote in the fifth phase of polling on Monday. On the eve of phase five of Lok Sabha polls, the Election Commission on Sunday pointed out that Mumbai, Thane and Lucknow have shown apathy towards voting in the past and asked these city dwellers to turnout in higher numbers.
Low turnout of voters is expected on Monday due to extreme heat wave conditions in some States including Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal.
The poll authority noted that in the past these cities have “suffered” from urban apathy in voting. “The Commission specially calls upon these city dwellers to erase the stigma by turning out in higher numbers,” it said. So far, the last four phases have registered a voter turnout of 66.95 per cent.
On May 3 too, while referring to voter turnout in phase two, the Commission had said it was “disappointed” with the turnout level in some metropolitan cities.
The EC had last month assembled many metro Commissioners here to work out a strategy to
fight urban apathy.
Urban and youth apathy is described as a phenomenon when young voters and those living in metros fail to turn up at polling stations on election day. As summer is on peak, hot and dry weather is another factor which may impact the voters' turn out in the fifth phase.
For Rahul Gandhi, Rae Bareli will be the second seat from where he is contesting the national polls. The Congress scion has already contested from Kerala's Wayanad in the second phase.
Rae Bareli is a Nehru-Gandhi family pocket borough that was represented by his mother Sonia Gandhi since 2004.
The BJP has fielded UP Minister Dinesh Pratap Singh.
In Amethi, Union minister Smriti Irani, who had defeated Rahul in 2019, is seeking a second term, while KL Sharma, an aide of the Gandhi family, has been fielded by the Congress.
Among other prominent candidates in the fifth phase of Lok Sabha polls are several Union Ministers including Rajnath Singh (Lucknow, UP), Piyush Goyal (Mumbai North, Maharashtra), Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti (from Fatehpur, UP) and Shantanu Thakur (Bangaon, WB); LJP (Ram Vilas) leader Chirag Paswan (Hajipur, Bihar), Shiv Sena's Shrikant Shinde (Kalyan, Maharashtra ), and BJP's Rajiv Pratap Rudy and RJD president Lalu Prasad's daughter Rohini Acharya (both Saran, Bihar).
Uttar Pradesh, which sends the largest number of MPs to Parliament, will see 14 seats voting in the fifth phase with the fate of five Union Ministers at stake.
These seats include Congress pocket boroughs of Rae Bareli and Amethi. Faizabad, which includes Ayodhya, the nerve centre of the BJP's Hindutva politics will also vote in this phase.
At the height of bitter political rivalry, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other BJP leaders tried to fend off the challenge posed by the INDIA bloc parties by raising the pitch on issues of appeasement, dynastic politics, Ram temple, Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), corruption and welfare initiatives taken by his government.
PM Modi, while campaigning in Uttar Pradesh on Friday, also claimed that the Congress and the Samajwadi Party will run a bulldozer over the Ram temple if elected to power, prompting the Congress to complain to the Election Commission on Saturday. He also alleged that the opposition wanted to bring back Article 370.
The campaigning saw high-pitched rhetoric by both the BJP and the INDIA bloc. PM Modi also attacked Congress claiming that the UPA government had wanted to allocate 15 per cent of the budget to Muslims. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge widened the gamut of poll guarantees of his party when he promised 10 kg of free grains to the poor instead of the five kg being given at present. Modi on Sunday condemned West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's remarks against Ramakrishna Mission and Bharat Sevashram Sangha and said threats are being issued against these socio-religious organisations to “appease” one's vote bank. PM Modi vowed that he will not let the corrupt live outside jail after June 4. Addressing a public gathering in West Bengal's Purulia, the PM said that he had promised in 2014 and 2019 that action will be taken against the corrupt. “I am saying it now that I won't let the corrupt live outside jail… Modi is giving you another guarantee, after June 4 when we form the new government, corrupt people will have to spend their entire lives in jail…,” Modi said.
On Friday, Congress leader Sonia tried to strike an emotional chord as she said at a rally that she is giving her son to the people of Rae Bareli and “Rahul will not disappoint you”.”My everything is all given by you. So, brothers and sisters, I am giving you my son” said Sonia, as Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra stood by her side on the stage at the rally. Trinamool Congress chief Mamata ruffled some feathers in the INDIA bloc when she said her party would provide only outside support to the group if it forms the government though she later softened her stand.
Of the 49 seats, the BJP had won 32 in 2019, while the Congress got only Rae Bareli. This time, the BJP is contesting in 40 seats while the Congress has limited itself to just 18 seats, leaving the rest to its allies.
“A total of 2000 Flying Squads, 2105 Static Surveillance Teams, 881 Video Surveillance Teams and 502 Video Viewing Teams are keeping surveillance round the clock to deal with any form of inducement of voters strictly and swiftly for the fifth phase of polling. A total of 216 international border check posts and 565 inter-state border check posts are keeping strict vigil on any illicit flow of liquor, drugs, cash and freebies. Strict surveillance has been kept at sea and air routes,” the Election Commission said in a statement.
Polling for 23 States and Union Territories, and 379 seats has been completed so far. Around 45.1 crore electors have exercised their franchise in the last four phases. As in February this year, the total number of voters stood at around 97 crore.
