The fate of several prominent politicians, including Union Minister Harsh Vardhan, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia, will be decided as 59 constituencies across six states and the national capital vote in the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha polls Sunday (May 12).
The biggest test would be for the BJP, which had won 45 of these seats in the 2014 elections. Voting is being held in 14 seats in Uttar Pradesh, 10 in Haryana, seven in Delhi, four in Jharkhand and eight each in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal.
Ex-police officer Bharati Ghosh, the BJP candidate in Bengal’s Ghatal, was pushed to the ground by a group of people at a polling station.
Over 10.17 crore people are eligible to cast their votes across the 59 constituencies going to the polls today. The Election Commissioner has set up over 1.13 lakh polling stations, and voting — which began at 7 am — will be on till 6 pm in most constituencies.
All eyes are on Uttar Pradesh’s Phulpur and Gorakhpur seats, which were captured by the Bahujan Samaj Party-Samajwadi Party combine in last year’s bypolls despite their reputation as BJP strongholds. The electoral upset had boosted the grand alliance’s morale, setting the stage for a united opposition.
Akhilesh Yadav is contesting from Azamgarh, a Samajwadi Party stronghold, against the BJP’s Dinesh Lal Yadav “Nirahua”. His father — Mulayam Singh Yadav — had managed to win the seat by a margin of 60,000 votes in 2014 despite the Modi wave.
Delhi’s seven seats are witnessing a three-cornered battle between the BJP, Aam Aadmi Party and the Congress, with ex-chief minister Sheila Dikshit, Union Minister Harshvardhan, former Olympian boxer Vijender Singh and cricketer-turned-politician Gautam Gambhir among those fighting for electoral victory.
Security has been heightened in Delhi, with over 60,000 personnel — including those from the home guards and paramilitary forces — deployed for the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha election. Liquor shops across the national capital region have also been closed for the duration.
The ruling Trinamool Congress, BJP, the Congress and Left Front are battling for supremacy in West Bengal’s Tamluk, Kanthi, Ghatal, Medinipur, Bankura, Bishnupur, Purulia and Jhargram constituencies. All the 15,428 polling stations for this phase are manned solely by central paramilitary forces.
In Jharkhand, state minister Chandraprakash Choudhary, former cricketer Kirti Azad and former Chief Minister Madhu Koda’s wife Gita are among the 67 candidates whose fate will be sealed in this phase of the elections. Polling is being held in Dhanbad, Giridih, Jamshedpur and Singhbhum, all won by the BJP in 2014.
Congress leader Digvijaya Singh faces the BJP’s Pragya Thakur — an accused in the Malegaon blasts case — in Bhopal today. Digvijaya Singh had accepted the challenge to contest from the BJP stronghold on a dare from Chief Minister Kamal Nath. Bhopal has been with the BJP since 1989.
The fate of 127 candidates, including four sitting parliamentarians, will be decided by 1.38 crore voters across Bihar’s eight Lok Sabha constituencies in the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha elections. The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance had won all of them in 2014.
Besides voting to the 59 parliamentary seats, repolling is being held in 168 polling stations in 26 assembly segments of Tripura today. The Election Commission had ordered the repolling over malpractices found during voting in the first phase of the elections on April 11.
