New Delhi: The long drawn out parliamentary elections in India that started on April 7 nears its end with voting slated to take place in 64 constituencies spread across seven states in the penultimate round Wednesday.
Several well-known leaders are in the fray in this round as the outcome may have a direct bearing on the future of many leaders.
Prominent candidates from among nearly 900 aspirants in Wednesday’s polling include the ruling Congress party’s vice-president Rahul Gandhi from Amethi seat of Uttar Pradesh, his estranged cousin Varun Gandhi from neighbouring Sultanpur seat as a nominee of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) president Lalu Prasad Yadav’s wife Rabri Devi from Saran seat of Bihar, Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) chief Ram Vilas Paswan from Hajipur seat of Bihar and former Himachal Pradesh chief minister Shanta Kumar from Kangra seat of Himachal Pradesh.
The BJP, seeking to come to power after being in the opposition for a decade, added colour to the contest by daring to challenge the elite Gandhi-Nehru family in its traditional stronghold Amethi where Rahul is confident of scoring hat-trick of victories. Not only BJP fielded a strong candidate in actor Smriti Irani against Rahul Gandhi, but also its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi addressed a rally in Amethi on Monday becoming the first ever senior BJP leader to enter the Gandhi bastion.
India’s largest constituency in size, Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir, goes to polls Wednesday. Conducting polls in the sparsely populated cold desert Ladakh is always seen as a big challenge.
It also would be the last time the united Andhra Pradesh will vote as the state is scheduled to get bifurcated next month into Telangana and Seemandhra.
After Telangana voted in the last phase on April 30 for 17 Lok Sabha and 119 assembly seats, Seemandhra will vote Wednesday for 25 Lok Sabha and 175 assembly seats. The undivided Andhra Pradesh had 42 Lok Sabha seats and a 294-member assembly.
With Wednesday’s voting, elections would have ended in 25 of 28 states and seven Union Territories including Delhi and Puducherry which enjoy limited statehood. In the last of the nine-phased elections on May 12, the remaining 41 constituencies spread across Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal vote.
The seven states voting Wednesday include Uttar Pradesh (15 seats), Bihar (7 seats), West Bengal (6 seats), Andhra Pradesh (25 seats), Himachal Pradesh (4 seats), Jammu and Kashmir (2 seats) and Uttarakhand (5 seats).
Besides Amethi, the focus would be on Saran seat as a defeat of RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s wife Rabri, who served as Bihar chief minister thrice, may spell troubles for Lalu who is out on bail after being convicted in the fodder scam case. They are facing a strong challenge from BJP’s national spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy.
West Bengal is in news due to war of words witnessed between BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and the West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee. Banerjee termed Modi as a paper tiger and challenged her to touch even one Muslim of her state after Modi’s threat to send back all illegal migrants from neighbouring Bangladesh after May 16 when results for all 543 Lok Sabha seats are scheduled to be declared.
