Voting began on Monday in the fifth phase of the Lok Sabha elections in 49 constituencies across six states and two union territories. The election will decide the electoral fate of former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, union minister Rajnath Singh, Smriti Irani and others. Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.
Of the seats up for polls, 13 are in Maharashtra, 14 in Uttar Pradesh, 7 in West Bengal, 5 in Bihar, 3 in Jharkhand, 5 in Odisha and 1 in Jammu and Kashmir. seat, and the only seat in Ladakh. This round is crucial for the BJP as the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) holds over 40 seats despite having the lowest number of seats among all phases.
On the eve of polling day, the Election Commission on Sunday urged urban residents in Mumbai to cast more votes, pointing out that Mumbai, Thane and Lucknow had shown apathy in voting in the past. Poll officials note that these cities have “suffered” from urban indifference in voting in the past, adding that “the commission is particularly targeting these urban residents to avoid stigma by receiving higher numbers of votes.” We are calling on them to eradicate this.”
So far, we have recorded a total voter turnout of 66.95 per cent in the last four stages. Other prominent candidates include Union minister Piyush Goyal (North Mumbai, Maharashtra), Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti (Fatehpur, UP) and Shantanu Thakur (Bangaon, western state). LJP (Ram Vilas) leader Chirag Paswan (Hajipur, Bihar), Shiv Sena’s Shrikant Shinde (Kalyan, Maharashtra), BJP’s Rajiv Pratap Rudy and RJD leader Lalu Prasad. Rohini Acharya, daughter of (both from Saran, Bihar).
Voting is also being held in Odisha’s 35 assembly constituencies, with BJD president and chief minister Naveen Patnaik among the candidates. In Maharashtra, voting will be held in 13 Lok Sabha constituencies, including six in Mumbai, with Piyush Goyal, Bharati Pawar (Dindori) and Kapil Patil (Bhiwandi) voting. He is one of the main candidates of the BJP, which is also fielding influential lawyer Ujjwal Nikam. (Mumbai North Central).
Shiv Sena’s Shrikant Shinde (Kalyan) and Municipal Corporation president Varsha Gaikwad (Mumbai North Central) are also among the candidates in this phase of the election, which will be the last in the state. In Uttar Pradesh, a five-member coalition consisting of Rajnath Singh (Lucknow), Irani (Amethi), Jyoti, Kaushal Kishore (Mohanlalganj) and Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma (Jalaun) Ministers are joining the fray. Voting for assembly by-elections to Lucknow East assembly constituency will also be held.
Rahul Gandhi, who is campaigning from Wayanad in Kerala, is also participating in the election campaign for Rae Bareli, a pocket constituency of the Nehru-Gandhi family, which has been represented by his mother Sonia Gandhi since 2004. . The Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded UP Minister Dinesh Pratap Singh. In Amethi, Mr. Iran, who defeated Rahul Gandhi in 2019, is seeking re-election for a second term, and K. L. Sharma, a close ally of the Gandhi family, is being fielded in the Congress.
Senior BJP leader Rajnath Singh is seeking a fourth term from Lucknow. He will be competing against SP MLA from Lucknow Central, Ravidas Mehrotra. The Faizabad Lok Sabha seat, which occupies the temple town of Ayodhya, will be contested by incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party MP Lal Singh, who is aiming for a hat-trick, and National Congress MP Awadesh Prasad from Mirkipur (South Carolina) Lok Sabha constituency. The main election contest is between the two. Ayodhya.
In Baramulla, besides Omar Abdullah, former separatist Sajjad Lone, former MLA Sheikh Abdul Rashid alias ‘Engineer Rashid’ who is currently in Tihar Jail, and former Rajya Sabha member of PDP Fayaz Ahmad Mir is among the other 21 people in the fray. More than 500 centenarians are among the 17.37 million voters eligible to vote in the constituency, and political insiders say this is the first major political battle since the repeal of the law. , is hoping for a high turnout thanks to the large crowds that flocked to election rallies and roadshows. In 2019, there were 370 people.
In Ladakh, Congress candidate Tshering Namgyal, Bharatiya Janata Party’s Tashi Gyarsong, and independent candidate North Carolina Rebel Haji Hanifa Jan are locked in a tight race. Security has been stepped up in seven constituencies in West Bengal that have a history of election-related violence, with more than 57 per cent of polling stations identified as sensitive at this stage, and this Lok Sabha election. It was the best ever.
More than 60,000 troops from the central army and about 30,000 from the state police have been deployed, officials said, which is more than the previous four phases in the state. Arjun Singh of the BJP, who has moved in and out of the saffron party and Trinamool Congress four times in the past five years, will face West Bengal minister Partha Bhowmik in Barrackpore to retain the seat he won in 2019. ing.
Actor Rachana Banerjee has been fielded by TMC to prevent actor and Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Locket Chatterjee from winning a second consecutive term from Hooghly. In Serampore, TMC’s sitting MP Kalyan Banerjee is contesting against BJP’s Kabir Shankar Bose.
Voting will be held in Bihar’s Saran, Muzaffarpur, Hajipur, Sitamalhi and Madhubani Lok Sabha seats, all of which are affiliated with the NDA. In Hajipur, by-elections will be held between Chirag Paswan, whose late father Ram Vilas Paswan had won the seat eight times, and RJD’s Shiv Chandra Ram, a former MLA and former state minister. .
Former Union minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy’s challenge to score a hat-trick in Saran has been challenged by RJD president Lalu Prasad’s daughter Rohini Acharya, who donated a kidney to her father. Voting in three constituencies of Jharkhand’s Lok Sabha – Chhatra, Koderma and Hazaribagh – and the Gandhi Assembly seat where Kalpana Soren, wife of jailed former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren, is a candidate. A by-election will be held on Monday.
An interesting battle is expected in the Koderma Lok Sabha seat, with Union Minister and BJP candidate Annapurna Devi and Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation candidate Vinod, MLA from Bagodar parliamentary constituency.・Mr. Shin confronts him. In Odisha, CM Patnaik is contesting from two constituencies – Hinjili in Aska Lok Sabha seat in Ganjam district and Kantabanj in Bolangir Assembly constituency.
Besides Patnaik, the main contestants include about six ministers from Odisha, incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party MPs Jual Oram and Sangeeta Singh Deo, Bharatiya Janata Party MP Achyut Samant; They include former hockey captain Dilip Tirkey. Approximately 4.51 crore electors exercised their right to vote in the past four phases.
