13.83 cr to vote for 89 lS seat; Rajnath, Jaitley, Abdullah, Bappi lahiri, Chandan Mitra prominent
Reeling under scorching heat and rising political tempers, 89 seats will go to polls on Wednesday, marking the end of seventh phase of lok Sabha elections and leaving 105 seats to be contested in the remaining two phases on May 7 and 12. The Wednesday elections will decide the fates of political heavyweights like BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi (Vadodara), Congress president Sonia Gandhi, senior BJP leaders lK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi, Rajnath Singh and Arun Jaitley.
The Congress and BJP have big stakes in this phase. They won 35 and 23 seats respectively in the last elections. The Janata Dal (United) and the Trinamool Congress have five seats each in the constituencies going to polls on Wednesday, while the CPI(M) has four.On Wednesday, a total of 13.83 crore voters have the right to vote in the polls in seven States and two Union Territories that will in all elect 89 MPs. Elections are already over in 349 constituencies in the first six phases. The States going to polls are Gujarat (26 seats), Punjab (13), Bihar (7), Uttar Pradesh (17), Andhra (17), Jammu & Kashmir (1), West Bengal (9), Dadra and Nagar Haveli (1), Daman and Diu (1).
Determined to make a clean sweep of all the 26 seats from his home State Gujarat, Modi is expected to sail smoothly from Vadodara where he is pitted against Madhusudan Mistry of the Congress. Modi is also contesting from Varanasi where he has a big edge over AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal and Congress’ Ajay Rai. The Varanasi seat in eastern Uttar Pradesh will go to polls in the last phase on May 12.
A strong pro-incumbency factor and Modi’s projection as PM candidate from the State could see the BJP winning between 20 and 22 seats in Gujarat. The Congress could grab 4-5 of the 26 seats.BJP veteran lK Advani is expected to regain his Gandhinagar seat with a big margin.But the NDA could face a stiff resistance in Punjab where the ruling Akali Dal is facing strong anti-incumbency. This has injected lot of drama and suspense in the high-voltage clash at Amritsar between Arun Jaitley and former Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh.
The AAP has also emerged powerful factor in Punjab and the party candidates are in the reckoning on at least four of the 13 seats at stake.Punjab will also witness a contest between SAD’s Harsimrat Kaur with her brother-in-law Manpreet Badal (Congress) in Bhatinda. While Congress leader Ambika Soni is contesting from Anandpur Sahib.Bollywood star and former Union Minister Vinod Khanna is contesting from Gurdaspur. Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur is seeking another term in lok Sabha from Patiala.In Jammu & Kashmir, Srinagar is the sole constituency that will go for poll on Wednesday. National Conference chief and Union minister Farooq Abdullah is seeking re-election from the seat which has seen a poor voter turnout in the past due to militancy.
The Union Minister is pitted against 11 others, the most formidable among them being former State Finance Minister and PDP leader Tariq Hameed Karra.
In Bihar, seven constituencies are going to polls on Wednesday in the fourth of the six-phase lok Sabha election in the State. Prominent among the candidates are JD(U) president Sharad Yadav from Madhepura, being challenged by RJD’s Rajesh Ranjan, alias Pappu Yadav, and cricketer-turned BJP leader Kirti Azad from Darbhanga and his challenger former Union Minister and RJD leader MAA Fatmi.
In West Bengal, 87 contestants will fight it out in nine constituencies that are going to polls in the third of the five-phase lok Sabha elections in the State. Among the candidates are BJP’s Bappi lahiri, journalist-turned politician Chandan Mitra and actor George Baker, who carry the hopes of the party leadership to score big for the first time in the State.Among Trinamool Congress candidates are sitting MPs Satabdi Roy, Kalyan Banerjee and Sultan Ahmed besides Prasun Banerjee, a former India soccer player.
Raebareli, the pocket borough of the Gandhis, lucknow and Kanpur are among the 14 lok Sabha constituencies in Uttar Pradesh where election will be held on Wednesday. Congress president Sonia Gandhi is seeking re-election from Raebareli, BJP president Rajnath Singh is contesting from lucknow, once represented by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in the lok Sabha. He is a sitting MP from Ghaziabad. Singh is pitted against former UP Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi and AAP’s Javed Jaffrey.
Shifted from Varanasi, senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi is contesting from Kanpur where Union Minister and Congress leader Sriprakash Jaiswal is fighting to retain his turf.Telangana, the new state-to-be, will also elect its first Assembly along with representatives to Parliament when elections will be held in 119 Assembly constituencies and 17 lok Sabha seats in that part of Andhra Pradesh.The Congress, the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and the Telugu Desam-Bharatiya Janata Party combine are the main contenders for power in what will be the 29th State of Indian Union. The new State will come into being on June 2, its ‘appointed’ date.
The general elections will be a close contest between the TRS and the Congress while the TDP-BJP combine is also expected to make certain gains. More than anyone else, the elections are highly critical for the TRS as it will be a “now-or-never” chance for it to realise its ultimate target of achieving power in the new State.Prominent among those seeking election to lok Sabha are Union Minister S Jaipal Reddy, TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao, lok Satta Party president N Jayaprakash Narayan and Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief Asaduddin Owaisi.