All you need to know about the biggest phase of 2019 Lok Sabha elections
Mumbai: On Tuesday, India woke up to the biggest phase of 2019 Lok Sabha elections as 116 seats go to polls.
In the first phase (April 11), Bihar saw the lowest voter turnout with 50 per cent while West Bengal received the highest turnout with 81 per cent.
In the second phase of polls, 68 per cent voter turnout was recorded.
All parliamentary constituencies in Gujarat, Kerala, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Goa and Daman and Diu will vote on April 23 in a single phase.
The counting of votes will take place on May 23.
Among the key contestants in the fray are BJP chief Amit Shah (Gandhinagar, Gujarat), Congress president Rahul Gandhi (Wayanad, Kerala), and Samajwadi Party patron Mulayam Singh Yadav (Mainpuri, UP).
Assam
In this phase, five constituencies of Northeast will go to polls. It is crucial for BJP and its allies --- Asom Gana Parishad and Bodoland People's Front.
AGP is contesting from the minority-dominated Barpeta and Dhubri seats while BPF is contesting from Kokrajhar.
20 seats from Northeast went to polls in the first two phases of voting.
In Assam’s Kokrajhar district, United People’s Party (Liberal) candidate Urkhao Gwra Brahma is pitted against BPF candidate and state social welfare minister Pramila Rani Brahma and independent MP and militant-turned-politician Naba Sarania.
Congress has fielded Sabda Ram Rabha, and CPI(M), Biraj Deka.
AIUDF has a stronghold in Dhubri and Barpeta. It was expecting Congress would go easy and allow it to win but Congress has fielded candidates in both the constituencies.
Bihar
Bihar will be witnessing a two-pronged fight between two alliances- the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the 'Mahagathbandhan' or grand alliance, which includes Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP), Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD), Vikasheel Insan Party (VIP), Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) (HAM-S).
NDA alliance constitutes BJP, JD(U) and LJP in Bihar.
The seats going to polls are Jhanjharpur, Supaul, Araria, Madhepura, Khagaria.
Chhattisgarh
Of the 11 seats, seven will go to polls in Chhattisgarh.
The Congress has fielded Atal Shrivastav, state party general secretary, from the key constituency Bilaspur against BJP's Arun Sao. The BJP denied ticket to its incumbent MP Lakhan Lal Sahu.
In Durg, BJP is contesting against Congress' Pratima Chandrakar and BSP's Geetanjali Singh.
Other seats are Surguja, Raigarh, Raipur, Korba, Janjir-Champa.
Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli
Both the Union Territories are represented by a single seat in the Lok Sabha seats.
In Daman and Diu, the BJP has fielded Lalubhai Patel who will be contesting against Congress's Ketan Patel.
In Dadra Nagar Haveli, BJP's Natubhai Gomanbhai Patel will contesting against Congress' Prabhu Ratnabhai Tokiya.
Gujarat
All 26 Lok Sabha seats in the state will go to polls in the third phase.
Both the national parties - the BJP and the Congress have fielded candidates on all the seats.
Among the key constituencies is Vadgam where the Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani is contesting as an independent candidate.
A BJP bastion since 1990, Maninagar is also a key seat.
Photo: AP
Another crucial seat is Vadodara. This seat was won by Prime Minister in 2014 with a clean sweep. In this election, BJP has fielded Ranjanben Bhatt who is contesting against Congress's Prashant Patel.
Jammu and Kashmir
For the first time, voting will be held in three phases in Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag which is a militancy-hit region.
Anantnag constituency includes four volatile districts, Shopian, Anantnag, Kulgam and Pulwama.
Photo: AFP
In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Anantnag elected People's Democratic Party's Mehbooba Mufti.
Karnataka
The remaining 14 seats will go for polling the third phase.
In 2014, the BJP had won 11 of the 14 seats, while remaining 3 were bagged by Congress.
However, this time, Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) have formed an alliance to take on the BJP.
The Congress will contest on 11 seats while the JD(S) will be taking on the BJP in the remaining three seats.
Among the candidates contesting in the third phase is veteran Mallikarjun Kharge of the Congress who will take on the BJP's Umesh G Jadhav in Gulbarga.
Kharge is the sitting MP, having won the seat in the 2009 and 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
The 14 seats going to polls are Chikkodi, Belgaum, Bagalkot, Bijapur, Gulbarga, Raichur, Bidar, Koppal, Bellary, Haveri, Dharwad, Uttara Kannada, Davanagere, Shimoga
Kerala
All the 20 seats in the state go to polls on April 23.
In 2014, Congress-led United Democratic Front won 12 seats, while 8 were won by the Communist Party of India- Marxist-led United Democratic Front.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi will be contesting against CPI's PP Suneer and NDA's Tushar Vellapally in Wayanad.
Photo: AP
In Thiruvananthapuram, Congress's Shashi Tharoor will be in a three-way fight. He is contesting against BJP's Rajasekaran and Left Front's C Diwakaran.
In Pathanamthitta, the key contenders are BJP's K Surendra, CPM's Veena George and Congress's Anto Anthony.
Amid the Sabarimala row, the BJP is expected to gain a section of voters.
Maharashtra
Out of 48 seats, 14 will also go to polls in the third phase. the fight will be between the ruling party and the Opposition alliance led by the Congress and the NCP.
In the previous general election, BJP and Shiv Sena formed an alliance and won the polls. The BJP-Shiv Sena tie-up bagged 42 out of 48 seats. This year also the alliance is intact.
Kolhapur, Madha, Pune, Ahmednagar, Raigad, Aurangabad are some of the key constituencies to go to polls in the BJP-ruled state.
In Kolhapur, NCP has a stronghold since 1980. NCP's sitting MP Dhananjay Mahadik and Shiv Sena's Sanjay Mandlik are pitted against each other.
In Madha, BJP's Ranjitsingh Naik-Nimbalkar will be facing NCP's Sanjay Shinde.
This time, BJP dropped its sitting MP Anil Shirole and nominated state Minister Girish Bapat, who is being challenged by state Congress General Secretary Mohan Joshi in Pune.
Ahmednagar has a stronghold of the Vikhe-Patil clan where Congress has held sway virtually uninterrupted since 1952.
Sujay Vikhe Patil, son of Congressman and Maharashtra leader of Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil suddenly left Congress and joined the BJP.
He is pitted against NCP's Sangram Jagtap.
In Raigad, Shiv Sena's Union Minister Anant Geete will make his third attempt to bag the seat contesting former NCP state President Sunil Tatkare.
Photo: AFP
Aurangabad is an important seat with a Muslim-dominated population.
It is currently held by four-time Shiv Sena MP Chandrakant Khaire and in his fifth attempt, he will contest against Sena rebel MLA Harshvardhan Jadhav (son-in-law of state BJP chief Raosaheb Danve-Patil), Congress strongman MLC Subhash Zambad and the VBA-AIMIM's Imtiyaz Jaleel.
The 17 remaining Lok Sabha constituencies in the state will go to the polls in the fourth phase on April 29.
Odisha
Six Lok Sabha constituencies — Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Puri, Sambalpur, Keonjhar and Dhenkanal — will go to the polls on April 23.
In Bhubaneswar, former IAS officer and BJP candidate Aparajita Sarangi will face BJD's former Muslim Police Commissioner Arup Patnaik.
In Cuttack, former Odisha DGP Prakash Mishra, contesting on BJP ticket will take on BJD's five-time sitting MP Bhartruhari Mahtab. Congress has fielded former state finance minister Panchanan Kanungo.
Meanwhile, Puri will witness a triangular fight between three major political parties --- BJD, BJP and Congress.
BJD spokesman Pinaki Mishra will fight against BJP’s national spokesperson Sambit Patra and state Congress media cell Chairman Satya Prakash Nayak.
Tripura
Polling in East Tripura seat was postponed from April 18 to April 23 after the Election Commission found that law and order situation there was not conducive for holding free and fair polls.
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh has the largest number of constituencies and the voting will be done in all the seven phases. In this phase, out of 80 seats, 10 will go to polls.
The fight in this state is between the ruling BJP, the Congress and the newly formed BSP-SP-RLD alliance.
Photo: ANI
In Mainpuri, Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav will be contesting against BJP's Prem Singh Shakya. Surprisingly, Mainpuri is among the few seats from where BJP has never won.
In Rampur, BJP's Jaya Prada is contesting against SP's Azam Khan. The two have been in the news over the 'khaki underwear' remark made by Khan.
Other seats that will go to polls are Moradabad, Rampur, Sambhal, Firozabad, Mainpuri, Etah, Badaun, Aonla, Bareilly and Pilibhit.
So far, 16 seats have gone to polls.
West Bengal
The key players in the state are Trinamool Congress, BJP, CPI(M) and the Congress. In this phase, five seats will go to polls.
The previous phases were marred by violence as clashes were reported between the TMC and BJP workers.
The five seats going to polls are Balurghat, Malda North, Malda South, Jangipur, Murshidabad.
Photo: AFP
In Malda, the battle will be between the 'first cousins' of a veteran political family.
Isha Khan, son of Congress stalwart Abu Haseem Choudhury, will be contesting against his first cousin Mausam Noor who is a sitting MP from Malda North. Mausam Noor won the MP seat under the Congress banner.
One-fourth of candidates in the fray for the third phase are crorepatis. Out of 392 crorepatis, 81 are from the BJP.
The richest among candidates in the third phase is Ku. Devendra Singh Yadav from Samajwadi Party with Rs 204 crore declared assets.
Among the major parties, 81 (84 per cent) out of 97 candidates from BJP, 74 (82 per cent) out of 90 candidates from Congress, 9 (90 per cent) out of 10 candidates from Samajwadi Party, 10 (53 per cent) candidates from CPI(M), 12 (13 per cent) candidates from BSP, 9 (41 per cent) candidates from Shiv Sena and 7 (70 per cent) out of 10 candidates from NCP have declared assets worth more than Rs 1 crores.
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