Indian Lok Sabha Elections Phase 6: Voting is all set for the sixth phase of the Indian Lok Sabha Elections 2024, which will be held tomorrow i.e. on May 25. In the sixth phase, voters in 58 Lok Sabha constituencies across eight states and union territories will exercise their franchise. Voting will take place in Bihar (8 seats), Haryana (all 10 seats), Jammu and Kashmir (1 seat), Jharkhand (4 seats), Delhi (all 7 seats), Odisha (6 seats), Uttar Pradesh (14 seats) and West Bengal (8 seats). Apart from this, voting will also take place in 42 constituencies in Odisha.
Key seats in the sixth Lok Sabha elections are New Delhi, North East Delhi, North West Delhi, Chandni Chowk, Sultanpur and Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh, Anantnag Rajouri in Jammu and Kashmir, Tamluk and Medinipur in West Bengal, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Gurgaon and Rohtak in Haryana, Bhubaneswar, Puri and Sambalpur in Odisha.
Major candidates for the 6th Lok Sabha elections
1. Bansuri Swaraj (BJP): Bansuri Swaraj is the daughter of the late Union Minister Sushma Swaraj. She is contesting the New Delhi Lok Sabha elections against AAP’s Somnath Bharti. The BJP had won all seats in the 2019 and 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
2. Manoj Tiwari (BJP) and Kanya Kumar (Congress): In Northeast Delhi, two main candidates — sitting MP Manoj Tiwari and Kanhaiah Kumar of the Indian National Congress — will be in the fray. The BJP, which won in the national capital in the 2019 general elections, has this time round lost all six of its seven MPs, retaining only actor-turned-politician Tiwari.
3. Maneka Gandhi (BJP): Menaka Gandhi will be contesting from the Sultanpur Assembly constituency against Samajwadi Party’s Ram Buar Nishad and Bahujan Samaj Party’s (BSP) Uday Raj Varma.
4. Sambit Patra (BJP): Sambit Patra is contesting from the Puri constituency in Odisha. He is up against Arup Patnaik of the BJD and Jay Narayan Patnaik of the Indian National Congress. Recently, Patra sparked a political controversy with his controversial statement that “Lord Jagannath is a devotee (bhakt) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.” BJD’s Patnaik is a former Mumbai Police Commissioner and will be contesting for the second consecutive Lok Sabha election. In 2019, he contested from Bhubaneswar Lok Sabha constituency but lost to BJP’s Aparajita Sarangi.
5. Naveen Jindal (BJP): In the sixth phase of elections, A three-way fight is expected in Kurukshetra, Haryana, where BJP candidate Naveen Jindal, a businessman, is taking on AAP’s Sushil Gupta and Indian National Congress (INLD)’s Abhay Singh Chautala. Jindal, who switched to the BJP from the Indian National Congress in March this year, represented Kurukshetra constituency from 2004 to 2014. He lost to BJP’s Raj Kumar Saini in 2014 and was not nominated by the Indian National Congress in the 2019 elections.
6. Manohar Lal Khattar (BJP): BJP candidate and former Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar is contesting from the Karnal constituency against Indian National Congress candidate Divyanshu Budhiraja. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP won all seats in Haryana, with its candidate Sanjay Bhatia winning in Karnal constituency.
7. Raj Babbar (Indian National Congress) Gurgaon in Haryana will see a battle between Raj Babbar of the Indian National Congress and Rao Inderjit Singh, a sitting MP and former minister of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Singh has won twice before. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, he won the seat with 881,546 votes (60.9%), while the Indian National Congress’ Ajay Singh Yadav lost. In the 2014 elections, he got 644,780 votes (48.8%).
8. Abhijit Gangopadhyay (BJP): The BJP has fielded former Calcutta High Court judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay in the Tamluk constituency in West Bengal. He is contesting against TMC’s Devansh Bhattacharya and CPI(M)’s Sayan Banerjee. Gangopadhyay retired as a judge of the Calcutta High Court and joined the BJP in March. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, TMC’s Dibyendu Adhikari defeated BJP’s Siddhartha Shankar Naskar in the Tamluk constituency.
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