Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, May 5
Top guns of Indian politics, including UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Home Minister Rajnath Singh will be in the fray in the fifth phase of polling tomorrow for 51 parliamentary constituencies across seven states.
Like the last phase, where the BJP was defending a significant chunk of segments, the ruling party will again defend 37 of the 51 Lok Sabha segments that will witness polling in Uttar Pradesh (14 seats), Rajasthan (12 seats), Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal (seven seats each), Bihar (five seats), Jharkhand (four seats), Ladakh and two districts of Anantnag.
At stake tomorrow are big reputations with Congress chief Rahul Gandhi facing a tough challenger in Smriti Irani in UP’s Amethi.
Rahul, a three term MP from Amethi, is defending his personal prestige in family turf with his sister and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra putting out a video appeal to voters today to elect the Congress chief and reject BJP’s alleged allurement of money and other forms of bribes.
Priyanka in her video played on the local pride of Amethi residents to say “you cannot be bought with money and you must defeat forces that are attacking my father Rajiv Gandhi who dedicated his life for Amethi and its people.”
Irani for her part put out a shocking video on Twitter which shows a local alleging that the doctors at Amethi’s Sanjay Gandhi Hospital, which has Rahul and Priyanka among trustees, turned back an emergency patient just because he had a Government of India Ayushman card.
The video shows patient’s relatives crying foul and lamenting that their family member died after being turned back by the Gandhi run hospital. The twin videos by rival parties reflect the level of stakes in Amethi which has been a Gandhi held segment for over 40 years now.
In Rae Bareli, Sonia Gandhi will run for the fifth term tomorrow even as the BJP attempts to queer the pitch for her by fielding a one time Gandhi loyalist Dinesh Pratap Singh who recently quit Congress terming it a “private limited company of Gandhis”.
Home minister Rajnath Singh is facing actor Shatrughan Sinha’s wife Poonam Sinha, the joint BSP, SP, RLD candidate in Lucknow where he is learnt to have an edge.
In Rajasthan too the BJP has much to defend as it holds 10 of the 12 segments in the fifth phase polling. Of these 12, only Alwar and Ajmer are with the Congress currently. The Congress won both these seats in byelections that followed the 2014 General Election in which the BJP had swept all of Rajasthan’s 25 segments.
In Madhya Pradesh, all seven seats in tomorrow’s polling are currently held by the BJP candidates while in Bengal all the seven segments to witnessing polls tomorrow are with the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress, which is facing a formidable competition from the BJP this time.
In the running from Bihar tomorrow are ex-minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy of the BJP from Saran and LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan’s brother Pashupati Paras from Hajipur. The BJP is defending three of Bihar’s five segments in the fifth phase tomorrow.
Ladakh and two districts of Anantnag are also part of fifth-phase elections. Anantnag’s Pulwama district, where 40 CRPF jawans were martyred on February 14 this year, also goes to polls tomorrow.
Uttar Pradesh (14)
- Rae Bareli, Amethi, Dhaurahra, Sitapur, Mohanlalganj (SC), Lucknow, Banda, Fatehpur, Kaushambi (SC), Barabanki (SC), Faizabad, Bahraich (SC), Kaiserganj and Gonda
- 2014: BJP bagged 12 of these 14 seats (Congress won Rae Bareli and Amethi)
Rajasthan (12)
- Ganganagar, Bikaner, Churu, Jhunjhunu, Sikar, Jaipur Rural, Jaipur, Alwar, Bharatpur, Karauli-Dholpur, Dausa and Nagaur
- Rajasthan has 25 Lok Sabha seats and 13 had gone to polls in fourth phase on April 29
Bihar (5)
- Hajipur, Muzaffarpur, Sitamarhi, Madhubani and Saran
- 2014: BJP won three of five seats, its allies LJP and Rashtriya Lok Samta Party won the other two. RLSP has now joined hands with Grand Alliance
Jharkhand (4)
- Hazaribagh, Koderma, Ranchi and Khunti (ST)
- Key candidates: Union Minister Jayant Sinha (BJP) and former CM Arjun Munda (BJP)
Jammu and Kashmir (2)
- Polling will take place in Ladakh and Pulwama and Shopian districts of Anantnag
Madhya Pradesh (7)
- All in Bundelkhand (held by BJP): Tikamgarh, Damoh, Khajuraho, Satna, Rewa, Hoshangabad and Betul
- Of 29 total seats, polling for six seats were held on April 29. Eight seats each will go to polls on May 12, 19
West Bengal (7)
- Bongaon (SC), Barrackpur, Howrah, Uluberia, Serampore, Hooghly and Arambagh (SC) seats
- Trinamool Congress, the BJP, the Congress and Left Front constituent CPM are the main contenders in the seven seats where the fate of 83 candidates will be decided
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