Polling in other states| Rajnath, Sonia, Rahul in fray

Nearly nine crore voters will decide the fate of 674 candidates, including political bigwigs Rajnath Singh, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and SmritiIrani, in the fifth phase of polling on Monday in 51 LokSabha constituencies in seven states.

The stakes are high for the ruling BJP and its allies as ithad swept 40 of these seats in 2014, leaving just two for the Congress and therest for other opposition parties such as the Trinamool Congress (seven).

   

 Voting will take placein 14 seats in Uttar Pradesh, 12 in Rajasthan, seven seats each in West Bengaland Madhya Pradesh, five in Bihar and four in Jharkhand. In Jammu and Kashmir,polling will take place in Ladakh constituency and Pulwama and Shopiandistricts of Anantnag seat.

 The ElectionComission has set up 94,000 polling stations/booths and made elaborate securityarrangements. In the fifth and smallest phase, total 8.75 crore voters willdecide the fate of 674 candidates.

 With this phase,election will be over in 424 seats and polling in the remaining 118 seats willbe held on May 12 and 19.

 The fifth phase ofpolling in 14 LokSabha seats in Uttar Pradesh will see a clash of titans,including Union ministers Rajnath Singh and SmritiIrani, UPA chairperson SoniaGandhi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi.

The BJP had bagged 12 of these seats in 2014 with theCongress winning Sonia Gandhi’s Rae Bareli and Rahul Gandhi’s Amethi — theonly two constituencies where the Congress succeeded out of the 80 in theentire state.

The BahujanSamaj Party (BSP) is contesting on five seats —Dhaurahra, Sitapur, Mohanlalganj, Fatehpur and Kaisarganj. Its ally SamajwadiParty (SP) is fighting for seven seats — Lucknow, Banda, Kaushambi, Barabanki,Faizabad, Bahraich and Gonda.

In Amethi and Rae Bareli, the SP-BSP alliance has not put upany candidate, leaving the two constituencies for the Congress.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh is seeking re-electionfrom Lucknow, while his colleague at the Centre SmritiIrani is again taking onRahul Gandhi in Amethi.

 Two former Olympians,one former IAS and one former IPS officer, and two seers are among the 134candidates whose fate will be decided by voters in Rajasthan’s 12 LokSabhaseats on Monday. After this phase, polling will come to an end in the desertstate.

 Former OlympiansRajyawardhanRathore (BJP) and Krishna Poonia (Congress) have locked horns inthe Jaipur Rural seat. Rathore in a Union minister.

 In Bikaner, Unionminister and former IAS officer Arjun Ram Meghwal (BJP) is facing a tough fightfrom his cousin and Congress candidate MadangopalMeghwal, a former IPS officer.Two seers — SumedhanandSaraswati and Baba Balaknath — are contesting thepolls from Sikar and Alwar respectively.

 In the seven LokSabhaconstituencies spread across three districts in West Bengal, it is afour-cornered contest between the Trinamool Congress, BJP, Congress and theCPI(M). The Trinamool had won all the seven seats in 2014.

 The BangaonLokSabhaseat will witness an interesting battle between sitting MP MamataBala Thakur ofthe Trinamool and her nephew Shantanu Thakur of the BJP. They hail from thenumerically strong Matua community, which both parties are trying to woo.

Of the five seats in Bihar, Hajipur and Saran are consideredpocket boroughs of the LokJanshakti Party (LJP) of Ram Vilas Paswan and the RJDof Lalu Prasad respectively. The other three constituencies are Muzaffarpur,Sitamarhi and Madhubani.

 Both Paswan, a Unionminister, and Prasad, serving jail term in fodder scam cases, are not in thefray, but their parties are making all-out efforts to retain their influence.

In the four seats in Jharkhand — Hazaribagh, Koderma,Ranchi and Khunti, polling will be held between 7 am and 4 pm. Voting ends twohours before the scheduled end in other constituencies due to security reasonsas some areas are affected by Left-Wing Extremism.

 While Union Ministerof State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha (BJP) is seeking re-election fromHazaribag, former chief minister and BJP candidate Arjun Munda is taking onKalicharanMunda of the Congress in the Khunti constituency.

 This will be thesecond phase of polling in Madhya Pradesh, the first phase having been held onApril 29. These seven constituencies — Tikamgarh, Damoh, Khajuraho, Satna, Rewa, Hoshangabad and Betul — werewon by the BJP in 2014.

The Congress, which came to power in the state in Decemberlast year after 15 years, hopes to carry forward the winning momentum while theBJP hopes to repeat its 2014 showing.

 Former chief ministerand PDP president Mehbooba Mufti is pitted against state Congress president G AMir in the AnantnagLokSabha constituency where polling is being held in threephases due to security reasons.

 In Ladakh, there arefour candidates in the fray — TseringNamgyal of the BJP, RigzinSpalbar of theCongress and two Independents.

 Election to 542 LokSabha seats is being conducted in seven phases between April 11 and May 19. Election in Vellore constituency in Tamil Nadu has been cancelled following excess use of money power. Results will be declared on May 23. 

With inputs from PTI

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