Fate of political veterans at stake in fifth phase of polling on Monday

The key contestants in this round are senior BJP leader and Union home minister Rajnath Singh, Congress president Rahul Gandhi, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi from Lucknow, Amethi and Rae Bareli respectively.

The Mahagathbandhan of SP-BSP-RLD alliance has not fielded any candidates in Amethi and Rae Bareli.

Voting will take place for 14 seats in Uttar Pradesh; 12 in Rajasthan; seven each in Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal; five in Bihar, four in Jharkhand and two of Jammu and Kashmir.

With this phase, the polling will come to an end in Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir.

Around 12 per cent candidates in fray in the 51 constituencies are women, the highest so far.

Elaborate security arrangements have been made as this has been a huge concern in the wake of killing of a BJP leader in Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag by militants on Saturday, Maoist attack in Maharashtra earlier this week which claimed at least 15 lives of security people and violence in West Bengal in all the previous phases.

Volatile Anantnag

In Anantnag parliamentary constituency, polling will take place in twin districts of Pulwama and Shopian. With Monday's polling, voting will come to an end in Anantnag LS seat.

However, the security has been enhanced in militancy-hit Anantnag in wake to killing of a BJP leader in Anantnag by militants. The low percentage of polling in this LS seat is still a matter of concern.

Anantnag is the only constituency in the country where polling is being held in three phases for security reasons. Former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti of the Peoples Democratic Party is in the fray from this constituency.

Cold desert

Ladakh, geographically the largest constituency of the country and is set to witness a quadrangular contest. BJP’s Tsering Namgyal, chief executive councillor (CEC) of Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC), Leh; Congress’s Rigzin Saplbar, former CEC Leh; Hussain, the joint candidate of National Conference and Peoples Democratic Party and former Congress MLA Asgar Ali Karbalai, are in fray.

Nehru-Gandhi pocket boroughs

In Uttar Pradesh, 2,47,09,515 voters will choose their representatives from 182 candidates in 15 seats.

The Election Commission (EC) on Saturday ordered repolling at 10 booths in three constituencies.

Amethi and Rae Bareli along with Lucknow, Dhaurara, Sitapur, Mohanlalganj, Banda, Fatehpur, Kaushambi, Barabanki, Faizabad, Bahriach, Kaiserganj and Gonda have witnessed high pitched campaign.

Another interesting battle is in state capital Lucknow where Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh is challenged by Poonam Sinha, wife of veteran actor Shatrughan Sinha, as the SP candidate. Congress has put up Acharya Pramod Krishnan.

Ex-IAS vs ex-IPS

In Rajasthan, a total of 2,31,79,623 voters will cast their franchise. From 12 seats, 134 candidates are in fray. The Election Commission has setup 23,783 polling booths.

In Rajasthan’s Bikaner parliamentary constituency, Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded Arjun Ram Meghawal, who is a former Indian Administrative Service Officer while from Indian National Congress, Madangopal Meghwal, former Indian Police Service officer.

Madangopal is Arjun’s cousin. In 2014 general elections, Arjun had defeated INC’s Shankar Pannu.

Besides Bikaner, Ganganagar, Churu, Jhunjhunu, Sikar, Jaipur Rural, Jaipur, Alwar, Bharatpur, Karauli-Dholpur, Dausa and Nagaur are set to witness polling on Monday.

Will turncoat turn the table?

In West Bengal, a total of 1,16,91,889 voters, will choose from 83 candidates for seven seats.

In Barrackpur, former railway minister and sitting MP from Trinamool Congress Dinesh Trivedi is pitted against Bharatiya Janata Party’s Arjun Singh.

Singh, an MLA from one of the Assembly segments of Barrackpur, was poached by the BJP last month and fielded from here. He had left TMC after his name didn’t figure in the list of candidates.

While Trivedi is a three time MP from this seat, Singh is a four-time MLA from Bhatpara Assembly seat of Barrackpore. Locals call Singh ‘Bahubali’.

The other six Lok Sabha seats going for polls in fifth phase are - Bangaon, Howrah, Uluberia, Sreerampur, Hooghly and Arambag. These seats span across three districts of South Bengal.Nearly 660 companies of para-military forces will man the fifth phase polling booths, nearly double the force from 4th phase.

Saran, a matter of prestige

In Bihar, for five seats 82 candidates are in fray. Around 87,66,722 voters can exercise their franchise from 8,899 polling booths.

Saran Lok Sabha constituency going to poll in the fifth phase of Lok Sabha election on May 6 is poised to see an interesting electoral battle between sitting BJP MP Rajiv Pratap Rudy and former Bihar minister Chandrika Rai.

Saran has been a stronghold of RJD as the seat had been represented by RJD chief Lalu Prasad. BJP’s Rudy is contesting from this seat. He defeated Mr Prasad wife Rabri Devi from this LS seat in 2014.

The grand alliance has fielded Chandrika Rai, former MLA from Parsa and ‘Samadhi’ of RJD chief Mr Prasad even as he has the challenge of wresting the seat from BJP.

The rest other seats going to polls are Sitamarhi, Madhubani, Muzaffarpur and Hajipur. Mazaffarpur came into a bad light last year after several minors in a shelter home, run by an NGO, were allegedly sexually harassed and raped.

Tri-cornered contest

In Jharkhand, 65,87,028 voters can cast their vote in 5,550 polling booths. A total of 61 candidates are in fray.

In Hazaribagh Lok seat of Jharkhand, sitting Member of Parliament Jayant Sinha of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is contesting against Gopal Sahu of the Congress.

Sahu is the younger brother of former Ranchi Parliamentarian Shiv Prasad Sahu who won the twice from this seat. The former Hazaribagh MP Bhuneshwar Prasad Mehta, popular as the ‘Stalin of Jharkhand’ of the Communist Party of India (CPI), is also contesting from this seat.

The other three seats going to polls are Koderma, Ranchi and Khunti (ST).

A total of 61 candidates are in the race for these four seats.

Bundelkhand region

In Madhya Pradesh, polling will be conducted in seven seats - Tikamgarh, Damoh, Khajuraho, Satna, Rewa, Hoshangabad and Betul. A total of 1,19,56,447 voters are eligible to vote through 15,240 polling booths.

This will be the second phase of polling in Madhya Pradesh, the first phase having been held on April 29.

Of the 110 candidates, 14 are in the fray in Tikamgarh, 15 in Damoh, 17 in Khajuraho, 21 in Satna, 23 in Rewa, 11 in Hoshangabad and nine in Betul.

The Election Commission has also ordered repolling on Monday in Sidhi Lok Sabha seat's booth number 185 located at Demha village, following complaints of irregularities during voting held there on April 29, state's additional chief electoral officer Sandeep Yadav said.

The high-decibel campaign for the seven constituencies saw top BJP and Congress leaders campaigning for their respective party candidates.

All these seats are currently held by the BJP.

According to the Election Commission, final voter turnout in four phases of the Lok Sabha polls was: Phase 1 - 69.50 per cent, Phase 2 - 69.44 per cent, Phase 3 - 68.4 per cent, Phase 4 - 65.51 per cent.

The mandate for the 17th Lok Sabha will be declared on May 23.

Image credit: UNI