Polling will be held on Monday for the fourth phase of LokSabha election in 72 parliamentary constituencies spread across nine states.
The stakes are high for the ruling BJP and its allies as ithad swept 56 of these seats in 2014, leaving just two for the Congress and therest for other opposition parties such as the Trinamool Congress (six) and theBijuJanata Dal (six).
Voting will take place in 17 seats in Maharashtra, 13 eachin Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, eight in West Bengal, six each in MadhyaPradesh and Odisha, five in Bihar, three in Jharkhand and a part of theAnantnag constituency in Jammu and Kashmir.
Election in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, where the BJP hadcornered all but two of the total 54 seats in 2014, will begin in this phase.The Congress appeared to make a comeback, forming the governments in the statesafter last year’s Assembly polls.
In the first three phases, voting has been held in 302 LokSabhaconstituencies, and 168 more seats will go to polls in the last three phases.
The fate of 961 candidates, including Union ministersGiriraj Singh, SubhashBhamre, S S Ahluwalia and Babul Supriyo of the BJP andformer Union ministers Salman Khurshid and AdhirRanjan Chowdhury of theCongress, will be decided by about 12.79 core voters in the fourth phase.
Among other key contestants in the fray are Kanhaiya Kumar(CPI), Baijayant Panda (BJP), UrmilaMatondkar (Congress), Dimple Yadav(Samajwadi Party), Satabdi Roy (TMC) and MilindDeora (Congress).
The Election Commission has set up 1.40 lakh pollingstations and has made elaborate security arrangements.
In Maharashtra, where election will come to end with thisphase, the opposition Congress is facing a tough task of reclaiming its lostbase in north Maharashtra and Mumbai, while the NCP is trying to get a footholdin Thane district and Western Maharashtra. The BJP and its ally Shiv Sena hadwon all 17 seats in 2014.
Union minister SubhashBhamre, and Congress leadersMilindDeora and UrmilaMatondkar are among the 323 candidates in the fray inthis phase.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot’s son, a member oferstwhile Jaipur royal family and two Union ministers are among 115 candidateswhose fate will be decided on Monday.
Jodhpur became one of the most talked about seats in theCongress ruled state where Gehlot did massive campaigning for his son Vaibhav,pitted against sitting MP and Union minister of state Gajendra Singh Shekhawat.
In Rajasthan, where the BJP had won all the seats in 2014,the Congress appeared to make a comeback, forming the government in the statewith a narrow majority after last year’s Assembly polls.
In Uttar Pradesh, most of these 13 seats are seeing a directfight between the BJP and SP-BSP alliance with Kannauj being a matter ofprestige for the SP.
In 2014, the BJP won 12 of these 13 seats in the state. OnlyKannauj, won by the Samajwadi Party, defied the Modi wave that year among them.Former chief minister AkhileshYadav’s wife Dimple is seeking re-election fromKannauj.
The Congress has a good presence in at least three of theconstituencies — Unnao (AnnuTandon), Farrukhabad (Salman Khurshid) and Kanpur(SriprakashJaiswal).
In West Bengal, all the eight seats, which are spread acrossfour districts, will see a four-cornered contest between Trinamool Congress,BJP, Congress and the Left Front.
In Odisha, where the state’s ruling BJD won all six seats,the BJP is making concerted efforts to bag a few seats.
Prominent among the hopefuls include BJP nationalvice-president Baijayant Panda (Kendrapara), who quit the BJD to join the partyrecently. Polling will also be held in 41 assembly seats in Odisha in thisphase.
In Bihar, the BJP and its allies are looking to retain allthe five seats in the face of a spirited fight put up by the RJD-Congressalliance.
The cynosure of all eyes in this phase, however, is theBegusarai seat which will witness an electrifying contest between the politicalLeft and the Right with CPI debutant Kanhaiya Kumar taking on firebrand BJPleader Giriraj Singh.
In all the six seats in Madhya Pradesh, a direct fightbetween the Congress and the BJP is on the cards. The state’s new power centreis witnessing a unique father-son electoral show with Chief Minister Kamal Nathand his son Nakul in the fray, hoping to boost not just the Congress but alsostrike roots as deep as the tree from where this region takes its name.
While the chief minister, a nine-time MP from the area, iscontesting an assembly bypoll, NakulNath is hoping to get elected to theLokSabha from Chhindwara, named after the wild date palm tree known as Chhind.
Over 45.26 lakh voters will decide the fate of 59 candidatesin the first phase of polls for three LokSabha constituencies in Jharkhand.
Union Minister of State for Tribal Affairs SudarshanBhagatis seeking re-election from the Lohardaga (ST) seat.
Polling will also be held in Kulgam district, which is partof AnantnagLokSabha constituency. AnantnagLokSabha constituency is spread overfour districts of Anantnag, Kulgam, Shopian and Pulwama with 16 assemblysegments. The LokSabha polls to this constituency are being held in threephases due to security reasons.
Election to 542 LokSabha seats is being conducted in sevenphases between April 11 and May 19. Election in Vellore constituency in TamilNadu has been cancelled following excess use of money power.
Results will be declared on May 23.