Fourth phase polling on Monday; Kanhaiya Kumar, Urmila Matondkar in fray

With this, the polling will come to an end in Maharashtra and Odisha. However, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh will witness the first round of voting.

The nine states going to polls tomorrow are — Jammu and Kashmir (1 seat), Uttar Pradesh (13), Rajasthan (13), Madhya Pradesh (6), Maharashtra (17), Bihar (5), Jharkhand (3), Odisha (6), West Bengal (8) and Sikkim (1).

The interesting battles in Monday’s polling will be seen in Begusarai (Bihar) where former JNU student leader and CPI candidate Kanhaiya Kumar is in the fray.

Other interesting poll battle will be fought in Uttar Pradesh's Kannauj where Dimple Yadav, wife of SP president Akhilesh Yadav, is contesting.

Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh and Mumbai North will be other battle grounds where MP Chief Minister Kamal Nath’s son Nakul (Cong) and film-actor Urmila Matondkar are pitched against their rivals.

Another interesting contest will be in Maval where NCP chief Sharad Pawar’s grandnephew Parth Pawar is trying to mine his political future.

Volatile Anantnag:

The polling will be conducted in second phase voting in militancy-hit Anantang parliamentary constituency scheduled for elections in three phases due to security reasons. Monday’s polling will cover four assembly segments - Noorabad, Kulgam, Hom ShaliBugh and Devsar. However, the Election Officials are worried about the low-turnout of voters as previous phase witnessed just 14 per cent voting.

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and Peoples Democratic Party chief Mehbooba Mufti is in the fray from Anantnag. Ms Mehbooba is seeking to resuscitate her political career as Bharatiya Janata Party broke alliance with the party last year resulting in Governor’s rule and her political oblivion.

Congress state president GA Mir, Justice (Retd) Hasnain Masoodi of National Conference (NC) and Sofi Yousuf are among 18 candidates seeking mandate from this constituency.

The voting timing has been fixed from 0700 hrs to 1600 hrs in the district under a huge blanket of security cover.

Battle Royale:

With Monday’s polling, the desert state will open its account in voting. Out of the total 25 Lok Sabha seats, 13 are going for polling.

The polling will take place from 0700 hrs to 1800 hrs.

The Lok Sabha seats going to polls are Tonk-Sawaimadhopur, Ajmer, Pali, Jodhpur, Barmer, Jalore, Udaipur, Banswara, Chittorgarh, Rajsamand, Bhilwara, Kota and Jhalawar-Baran.

A total of 172 candidates are in fray in these constituencies.

In these constituencies, the main contest is between Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot’s son Vaibhav Gehlot is contesting against BJP’s strongman and Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat.

In 2014, all the 25 LS seats were bagged by the Bharatiya Janata Party.

However, in the state Assembly elections last year, the Congress made a comeback. Its senior leader Ashok Gehlot became the chief minister, taking over from BJP's Vasundhara Raje.

Regional vs National parties:

In Uttar Pradesh, the battle is multi-pronged. The polling in 13 Lok Sabha seats of the state will take place tomorrow from 0700 hrs to 1800 hrs.

The constituencies going to polls in the fourth phase are - Shahjahanpur, Kheri, Hardoi, Mishrik, Unnao, Farrukhabad, Etawah, Kannauj, Kanpur, Akbarpur, Jalaun, Jhansi and Hamirpur. Except for Kannauj, all these seats are currently held by the BJP.

On Monday, bypoll to Nighasan Assembly seat in Kheri will also be held due to death of a sitting BJP member.

The fourth phase polling in UP, will decide the fate of SP candidate Dimple Yadav from Kannauj, former union ministers and Congress candidate Salman Khurshid from Farrukhabad and Sriprakash Jaiswal from Kanpur and senior Congress leader Anu Tandon who is pitted against BJP's Sakshi Maharaj from Unnao.

There is direct contest between SP-BSP-RLD alliance with the BJP. However, the Congress contesting alone could turn the tables.

Maximum city:

The commercial capital of India — Mumbai — spread across Mumbai-North, Mumbai-North West, Mumbai-North Central, Mumbai-North East, Mumbai-South and Mumbai-South Central will also go to polls.

The other constituencies of Maharashtra where polling will be conducted are Nandurbar, Dhule, Dindori, Nashik (North Maharashtra), Palghar, Bhiwandi, Kalyan, Thane, Maval and Shirur in Pune district, and Shirdi in Ahmednagar district.

The prominent candidates are Hindi cinema actror Urmila Matondkar (Mumbai North) and Union minister Subhash Bhamre (Dhule).

The other prominent candidates include Congress’ Priya Dutt from Mumbai-North Central seat and NCP chief Sharad Pawar’s grandnephew Parth Pawar, who is entering the electoral politics from Maval seat.

Jr Nath in fray:

The six seats of Madhya Pradesh going to polls on Monday are Sidhi, Shahdol, Jabalpur, Balaghat, Mandla and Chhindwara.
In Chhindwara, MP Chief Minister Kamal Nath’s son Nakul (Cong) is making his entry into the political arena by challenging the saffron side’s Mr Nathan Shah.

Voting in the Chhindwara Assembly by-poll is also slated for Monday. The Chhindwara Vidhan Sabha by-election is indeed a high-profile one as Mr Kamal Nath (Cong) is trying his fortune against Mr Vivek Sahu (BJP).

In Sidhi, the Assembly’s erstwhile leader of the opposition Ajay Singh (Cong) – son of former Human Resource Development Minister and ex-chief minister Arjun Singh – is on collision course with saffron camp MP Riti Pathak. In Shahdol, Mrs Pramila Singh (Cong) is in an eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation with Mrs Himadri Singh (BJP); Jabalpur’s principal contenders are advocate Vivek K Tankha (Cong) – a Rajya Sabha member – versus BJP state President Rakesh Singh; in Balaghat, Mr Madhu Bhagat (Cong) is up against Mr Dhal Singh Bisen (BJP); in Mandla, Mr Kamal Maravi (Cong) is fighting five-time MP Faggan Singh Kulaste (BJP).

Madhya Pradesh is to witness voting in four stages.

Battle of Begusarai:

In Bihar, the five Lok Sabha seats going to poll on Monday are Darbhanga, Ujiarpur, Samastipur, Begusarai and Munger.
The voting will be from 0700 hrs to 1800 hrs on April 29.

Begusarai will witness a strong triangular contest between former JNU student leader and CPI candidate Kanhaiya Kumar, BJP’s fireband leader and Union Minister Giriraj Singh, and RJD veteran Tanveer Hasan.

Bihar's Water Resources Minister and JD (U) candidate from Munger Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh, state BJP president Nityanand Rai from Ujiarpur, Rashtriya Lok Samata Party chief and former union minister Upendra Kushwaha from Ujiarpur, senior RJD leader Abdul Bari Sidiqqui from Darbhanga and LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan's younger brother Ramchandra Paswan from Samastipur are among other prominent candidates.

Mining zone:

The three Lok Sabha seats of Jharkhand - Chatra, Lohardaga (ST) and Palamu (SC) will go to polls.

The main battle in Chatra is between Sunil Singh of the BJP, Manoj Yadav of the Congress and Subhash Yadav of the RJD while in Lohardaga Sudarshan Bhagat of the BJP will take on Sukhdeo Bhagat of the Congress. On the other hand, in Palamu the main battle is between VD Ram of the BJP and Ghuran Ram of the RJD.

A total of 59 candidates are in the race for these three seats.

Anti-incumbency:

The polling for six Lok Sabha seats and 41 assembly seats of Odisha will also be held on Monday.

The LS constituencies are Mayurbhanj, Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Kendrapara and Jagatsinghpur.

This will be the final phase of polling in Odisha, except for Patkura assembly seat where voting is slated to be held on May 19 following the death of the BJD candidate.

Prominent candidates in fray are BJP national vice-president Baijayant Panda from Kendrapara LS seat and state Congress president Niranjan Patnaik from Bahndaripokhari.

Democracy and violence:

Eight Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal - Baharampur, Krishnanagar, Ranaghat, Bardhaman Purba, Bardhaman –Durgapur, Asansol, Bolpur and Birbhum – will go to polls on Monday.

However, the violence in last three phases in West Bengal has become a matter of concern. In third, one person was killed while several injured in poll related violence.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), All India Trinamool Congress (AITC), Indian National Congress (INC) and the Left Front fielded their candidates in all the eight constituencies.

Prominent candidates contesting the fourth phase Lok Sabha elections are former West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee president and former union minister Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury from Baharampur, Surinderjeet Singh Ahluwalia from Bardhaman –Durgapur, Singer-cum-Union Minister Babul Supriyo from Asansol, former CPI(M) MP Dr Ram Chandra Dome from Bolpur and veteran actress-cum-sitting TMC MP Satabdi Roy.

The result for 17 Lok Sabha will be declared on May 23.

Image credit: UNI