Vibha Sharma
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, April 28
With polling in 303 constituencies of the 543-member Lok Sabha over, 72 of the remaining 240 constituencies will go to the polls on Monday, where the main stakeholder, the ruling BJP, will be in a direct contest with the lead Opposition party, the Congress. A part of J&K’s Anantnag will vote in the second of the three-phase polling in the constituency.
The seats, majority of which are in the Hindi heartland, are spread across nine states. The National Democratic Alliance is defending 56 seats — BJP (45) and allies (11) — that it won in 2014. The BJP holds all 13 in Rajasthan, 12 in Uttar Pradesh, five in Madhya Pradesh, three in Bihar, all three in Jharkhand, eight in Maharashtra and one seat in West Bengal.
Last time, the Congress had won just two — one each in MP and West Bengal — BJD six in Odisha, Trinamool Congress six in West Bengal and Samajwadi Party one in UP.
The day will also see interesting contests, including between Union minister Giriraj Singh (BJP) and former JNU leader Kanhaiya Kumar (CPI) in Begusarai, Bihar. RJD’s Tanveer Hassan has a strong base in this Muslim-dominated seat. Sons of Chief Ministers Ashok Gehlot and Kamal Nath and a former CM — Vasundhara Raje — are also in the fray along with some famous actors and politicians.
BJP’s sitting MP from Darbhanga, Bihar, Kirti Azad is now contesting on a Congress ticket from Dhanbad, Jharkhand, where the saffron party is facing a collective challenge from the ‘mahagathbandhan’, which includes the Congress, JMM, RJD and Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik). In 2014, the BJP won 12 of the 14 seats in the state.
In the critical Uttar Pradesh, where the BJP currently holds a majority of seats, Dimple Yadav, wife of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, is in the fray. She is contesting from Kannauj, the party bastion, for the third time. In 2014, she won by around 20,000 votes. While the BJP has repeated its candidate Subrat Pathak, who gave her a tough fight last time, with no Congress or BSP candidate in the fray, it can be an easy ride for Dimple.
In Farrukhabad, senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid is fighting to regain lost ground and political relevance. In 2014, he was relegated to fourth place drawing a little over 95,000 votes. The BJP has repeated its strongman Mukesh Rajput in the constituency where the BSP has fielded its candidate.
Former coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal is seeking his fourth term from Kanpur, a seat he lost to BJP veteran Murli Manohar Joshi, who has now been replaced with state minister Satyadev Pachauri. The SP-BSP alliance has fielded Ram Kumar Nishad, son of former Nishad community strongman Manohar Lal.
In Congress-ruled Madhya Pradesh, where it is a battle of prestige for CM Kamal Nath, his son Nakul is contesting Chhindwara, a seat Nath represented in the Lok Sabha no less than nine times.
In Rajasthan, his counterpart Ashok Gehlot’s son Vaibhav is making his electoral debut from Jodhpur against Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat. Former CM Vasundhara Raje’s son Dushyant Singh is seeking re-election from Jhalawar-Baran. In Assam’s Asansol, Union minister Babul Supriyo is pitted against actor-turned-politician Moon Moon Sen of the TMC.
In Maharashtra, apart from former Union Minister Milind Deora, actor Urmila Matondkar and Priya Dutt from the Congress, and Poonam Mahajan of the BJP are contesting. NCP supremo Sharad Pawar’s grandnephew Parth Pawar is also making his electoral debut from Maval.
Crucial period for BJP
- Apart from UP, Bihar and West Bengal, which are polling in all seven phases, saffron-dominated Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh and Punjab will vote over the next three weeks
- Most seats in these states are held by the BJP, which is in direct contest with a resurgent Congress, and may prove crucial for PM Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah, seeking a second consecutive term at the Centre
from The Tribune http://bit.ly/2XWjFDr
via Today’s News Headlines
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