Phase 4 campaigning ends, 96 constituencies to witness polling today
NEW DELHI: The campaigning for Phase 4 of Lok Sabha elections which will see voting on 96 constituencies, ended on Saturday. A total of 1,717 candidates from 10 States/UTs will contest elections in this phase.
The Election Commission of India informed that a total of 4,264 nominations were filed for 96 parliamentary constituencies across. The poll body further stated that the maximum number of nomination forms were received from Telangana (1488) followed by Andhra Pradesh with 1103 nominations from 25 constituencies.
ECI further mentioned that the average number of contesting candidates in a parliamentary constituency for the fourth phase is 18.
The last date for filing nominations for phase 4 for all 10 States/ UTs was April 25, 2024.
Key constituencies
Baharampur
The Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) are the main parties that are in a fierce contest in Baharampur. Yusuf Pathan will contest against Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, president of the West Bengal unit of Congress, and the BJP’s candidate, Dr Nirmal Kumar Saha.
West Bengal Congress President Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury is the current sitting Member of Parliament from Baharampur. Chowdhury has been a strong and influential leader in Baharampur, having secured victory for the
Congress party in three consecutive terms from 2009 to 2019. Hyderabad
Hyderabad is bracing itself for the big showdown between Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Madhavi Latha and sitting All India Majlise-Ittehadul Muslimeen MP Asaduddin Owaisi for the Lok Sabha election. AIMIM chief is popular in the constituency and has been campaigning from door-to-door, seeking a fifth term in the constituency. He has also raised the issue of political representation and minority rights.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections, Asaduddin Owaisi from AIMIM won the seat with a margin of 282,186 votes. Asaduddin Owaisi polled 517,471 votes with a vote share of 58.9 per cent and defeated Dr. Bhagavanth Rao from the BJP, who got 235,285 votes (26.80 per cent).
Krishnanagar
Trinamool Congress’ (TMC) leader Mahua Moitra will face the BJP’s Amrita Roy.
n the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, TMC’s Mahua Moitra won the seat with 614,872 votes, defeating BJP leader Kalyan Chaubey who secured 551,654 votes. CPI(M)s Dr Shantanu Jha received 120,222 votes. Mahua Moitra was recently expelled from the Lok Sabha. Begusarai
BJP leader Giriraj Singh is pitted against CPI candidate Awadhesh Rai in the Lok Sabha polls.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP’s Giriraj Singh defeated Kanhaiya Kumar who contested on a CPI ticket. Singh got 692,193 votes with 56.48 per cent, while
Kumar got 269,976 votes with 22.03 per cent votes.
Munger
Janata Dal (United) leader Rajiv Ranjan Singh (Lalan Singh) will face RJD leader Anita Devi.
In the 2019 elections, Lalan Singh of JD (U) emerged victorious in Munger with a margin of over 1.67 lakh votes, defeating RJD’s Neelam Devi, who is the wife of Anant Singh.
Srinagar
National Conference has fielded Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi, who will face PDP’s Waheed Parra from this seat. Apni Party has fielded Mohammad Ashraf Mir. The seat is currently held by National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah. Asansol
The ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) in West Bengal has chosen to wield the star power of Shatrughan Sinha against Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Surinderjeet Singh Ahluwalia from Asansol which will go to polls on Monday.
The Bihari Babu of the Indian film industry, Shatrughan Sinha joined TMC in 2022 after a brief stint in the Congress. Sinha quit the BJP in 2019 claiming that the party has become a “one-man show”.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Babul Supriyo, a popular singer, who was then with the BJP, won the Asansol Lok Sabha seat. However, the seat fell vacant when Supriyo joined the TMC. Sinha, who was fielded by the TMC in the bypolls, won the election, winning 56.62 per cent of the polls.
Kannauj
Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav will face incumbent MP and BJP leader Subrat Pathak.
Akhilesh Yadav served as Lok Sabha MP from 2000-2012. He resigned from the Kannauj parliamentary seat in 2012 after he became the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.
Kadapa
Andhra Pradesh Congress chief YS Sharmila will face sitting MP Avinash Reddy. Sharmila is the cousin of two time sitting MP Avinash Reddy.
Khunti
One of the most high-profile constituencies in Jharkhand, and a BJP’s stronghold too, will witness a contest between the BJP’s Arjun Munda and the Congress’ Kali Charan Munda as its candidate. Arjun Munda is the sitting MP from this seat.
Andhra Pradesh will witness polling for the 25 Lok Sabha constituencies and 175 assembly seats simultaneously on May 13.
The ruling YSR Congress Party, National Democratic Alliance (NDA), and Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc will be in a triangular contest in the polls.
In Andhra Pradesh, NDA comprises the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), former Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party (TDP), and Pawan Kalyan’s Jana Sena Party.
The TDP will contest 17 seats in the state. While the BJP will contest 6 constituencies, the JSP will contest two seats, as per the seatsharing arrangement for the Lok Sabha polls.
In the previous general elections, the YSRCP bagged 22 out of 25 seats in the state and the TDP was reduced to only 3 seats. Congress and the BJP failed to win any seats in the southern state.
As part of a seat-sharing deal reached between the NDA partners, the TDP will contest 144 Assembly and 17 Lok Sabha constituencies in Andhra, while the BJP will put up candidates in 6 Lok Sabha and 10 Assembly constituencies. The Jana Sena will contest two Lok Sabha and 21 Assembly seats.
On preparations for the polling in Telangana, Chief Electoral Officer Vikas Raj said, “The silence period has started in 13 segments, where the polling will be held on May 13, from 7 am to 4 pm. We are ready. Our distribution centres will start sending the material and polling personnel tomorrow morning. The police personnel have arrived. Our EVMs are ready. We are confident that we will be able to conduct free, fair and peaceful elections.”
Voting for all 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana will take place in a single phase on May 13.
In this phase, Prime Minister continued attacking opposition parties on the reservation issue, saying that INDIA bloc will snatch away rights of reservation rights of ST, SC and OBC community.
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