The shrill campaigning for 64 parliamentary constituencies, spread across seven States, which will go to polls on Wednesday in the eighth phase of lok Sabha elections, came to an end on Monday.
The constituencies going to polls on Wednesday include 25 in Andhra Pradesh, seven in Bihar, all four in Himachal Pradesh, remaining two in Jammu & Kashmir, 15 in Uttar Pradesh, all five in Uttarakhand and six in West Bengal. Polls for 175 Assembly seats in Seemandhra will also be held on Wednesday.
One of the key constituencies going to polls in this phase is Amethi where Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi is seeking re-election and facing a tough contest this time from BJP's star-turned politician Smriti Irani and Kumar Vishwas of the Aam Aadmi Party. BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi delivered a powerful speech at Amethi on the last day of campaigning seeking the electorates to overthrow the Gandhis who have "cheated" the voters. Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka extensively campaigned in the constituency over the last few days and targeted Modi in a bitter war of words.
Rahul's cousin and BJP leader Varun Gandhi from neighbouring Sultanpuri, lJP president Ramvilas Paswan from Hajipur in Bihar and BJP stalwart Shanta Kumar from Kangra in Himachal Pradesh are among the nearly 900 candidates in the fray in the penultimate phase of the polls.
Controversial Union Minister Beni Prasad Verma (Gonda) and cricketer-turned-politician Mohd Kaif (Phulpur) are among 243 candidates in the fray in this phase in UP. The Congress had won seven seats, the BSP had a tally of five seats and the SP wrested three seats in 2009.
As many as 72 candidates are contesting in six seats in West Bengal where Modi raised the emotive issue of illegal immigrants, drawing a sharp reaction from Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee who called the BJP PM candidate a "paper tiger" and accused him of stoking communal fire. Modi hit back at Banerjee daring her to prove herself a "real tiger" by taking action against the culprits in the multi-crore Saradha scam.
The left Front is facing a tough contest in this round to retain the six seats it had won last time as nine-time MP Basudeb Acharia, former actresses Moonmoon Sen and Sandhya Roy and singer Babul Supriyo are expected to give a tough fight.
In Bihar, where 118 candidates are in the fray, former Bihar Chief Minister lalu Prasad's wife Rabri Devi is seeking to make her debut in the lok Sabha from Saran where she is pitted against BJP leader Rajiv Pratap Rudy. Five of the seven seats going to the polls on Wednesady were bagged by JD (U) in 2009. Saran and Maharajganj went to RJD.
Both Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand are going for a single-phased election on Wednesday where contestants will be fighting four and fiveseats respectively.
The Seemandhra region of Andhra Pradesh will cast its vote for 25 seats where 333 candidates are in the fray.