Stage set for last phase of LokSabha polls

#Modi among 918 candidates whose fate to be decided

19/05/2019

New Delhi, May 18: The seven-phase LokSabha elections, one of the most bitterly fought in recent memory, will come to a close Sunday when polling will be held in 59 constituencies including in Varanasi where Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seeking to retain the seat.
Polling will be held in all 13 seats in Punjab and an equal number of seats in Uttar Pradesh, nine in West Bengal, eight seats each in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, four in Himachal Pradesh, three in Jharkhand and the lone seat Chandigarh.
Over 10.01 crore voters are expected to decide the fate of 918 candidates. The Election Commission has set up more than 1.12 lakh polling stations for smooth conduct of polls.
On Sunday, a bypoll will be held in Panaji, necessitated due to the death of former chief minister ManoharParrikar in March. Bye-elections will also be held in four assembly constituencies of Tamil Nadu Sulur, Aravakurichi, Ottapidaram (SC) and Thiruparankundram.
Counting of votes will be taken up on May 23. An average of 66.88 per cent voters exercised their franchise in the last six phases. The whole elections were spread over 38 days.
In Uttar Pradesh, all eyes will be on Varanasi, where besides Modi, 25 other candidates are in fray. Modi's main challengers are Congress's Ajay Rai and SP-BSP grand alliance's nominee Shalini Yadav. Union minister ManojSinha, Uttar Pradesh BJP chief Mahendra Nath Pandey are seeking re-election from Ghazipur and Chandauli, respectively.
The BJP is contesting 11 LokSabha seats in this phase, while its ally Apna Dal (Sonelal) is contesting Mirzapur, currently held by Union minister Anupriya Patel, and Robertsganj. SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal and union ministers HarsimratKaurBadal and Hardeep Singh Puri are among the 278 candidates including 24 women whose fate will be decided in Punjab on Sunday.
Besides Punjab, more than 6 lakh voters in the union territory of Chandigarh will choose between sitting MP and BJP candidate KirronKher and former railway minister and Congress candidate Pawan Kumar Bansal.
Actor turned politician Sunny Deol, Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jakhar, AamAadmi Party's Punjab unit chief Bhagwant Mann are among other prominent candidates in the fray. On most of the 13 seats, the contest appears to be a direct fight between the Congress and ShiromaniAkali Dal-BJP alliance.
A conglomeration of several political outfits, the Punjab Democratic Alliance (PDA) led by AAP rebel Sukhpal Singh Khaira, is also contesting on all 13 seats while SAD (Taksali), breakaway faction of SAD, has fielded one candidate from Anandpur Sahib.
In 2014, the AAP and the SAD had won four seats each, the Congress three and the BJP two.
An electorate of 1,49,63,064 will decide the fate of 111 candidates in nine seats of West Bengal -- Kolkata North and Kolkata South, Dum Dum, Barasat, Basirhat, Jadavpur, Diamond Harbour, Jaynagar (SC) and Mathurapur (SC). Eight seats, barring Jadavpur, will witness a contest among the Trinamool Congress, the BJP, the Congress and the Left Front. The Congress has given the Jadavpur seat a miss.
The nine constituencies are spread across the three districts of Kolkata, South and North 24 Parganas.
The high-voltage campaign for the final phase saw poll meetings by Prime Minister NarendraModi, BJP president Amit Shah, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Congress leader Sachin Pilot and West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC chief Mamata Banerjee.
Shah's roadshow in the city on Tuesday was marred by violence and destruction of social reformer Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar's bust in a college in north Kolkata.
In a first such action in India's electoral history, the Election Commission ordered campaigning in the nine West Bengal constituencies to end at 10 pm on Thursday, instead of 6 pm on Friday, in the wake of the violence between the BJP and the TMC during Shah's roadshow.
As many as four Union ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad, Ram KripalYadav, RK Singh and Ashwini Kumar Choubey -- are among the 157 candidates in Bihar.
Seven of these seats were won by the NDA last time, five by the BJP and two by the RLSP, which is now with the "Mahagathbandhan".
One was bagged by the JD(U) headed by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, which then fought separately but is now back with the NDA.
By-poll will also be held for the Dehri Assembly seat.
The most keenly-watched contest is in Patna Sahib where Prasad, one of the most prominent members of the NarendraModi cabinet, is seeking entry into the LokSabha. He is pitted against ShatrughanSinha - the actor-turned-politician, who won it on both occasions for the BJP and is now in the fray as the Congress candidate.
The electoral fortunes of 42 candidates including that of former chief minister and Union minister ShibuSoren will be decided on Sunday in Jharkhand.
Soren, the chief of Jharkhand MuktiMorcha and a eighth term sitting MP is in the fray from Dumka seat once again. He is crossing swords with BJP's Sunil Soren. The JMM leader had defeated his BJP challenger twice in 2009 and 2014. Dewas, Ujjain, Mandsaur, Ratlam, Dhar, Indore, Khargone and Khandwa seats in Madhya Pradesh, all currently held by the BJP, will go to polls in Madhya Pradesh. Former Union ministers KantilalBhuria, ArunYadav are in the fray from Ratlam and Khandwa, the latter seeing a tough fight between Yadav and ex-MP BJP chief Nandkumar Singh Chauhan.
Polling will also be held in all four LokSabha constituencies in Himachal Pradesh where as many as 45 candidates, including five legislators, are in the fray.
The fate of Prime Minister NarendraModi along with 917 other candidates will be decided on Sunday, the last phase of seven-phased LokSabha polls.
The voting will take place for 59 seats including Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh from where Modi is seeking re-election, bringing the curtain down on the seven-phased mammoth electoral exercise which began on April 10.
In the last phase of polling, 13 seats each in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, nine in West Bengal, eight seats each in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, all four constituencies in Himachal Pradesh, three in Jharkhand and one seat in the Union Territory of Chandigarh will witness the polling.
According to Election Commission of India (ECI), over 10.01 lakh voters will decide the fate of 918 candidates. The counting of votes will take place on May 23.
The most keenly watched electoral battle will take place in Varanasi LokSabha constituency, where Modi is facing Ajay Rai of Congress party and SP's ShaliniYadav.
Other prominent political figures whose fate will be sealed in the electronic voting machines (EVMs) are ShatrughanSinha (Congress) and Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad (BJP) from Patna Sahib constituency, Bhojpuri actor Ravi Kishan (BJP), MadhusudhanTripathi (Congress) and RambhusalNishad of SP from Gorakhpur seat, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri of BJP and Congress' Gurjeet Singh Aujla from Amritsar LokSabha constituency and actor Sunny Deol, who is pitted against Congress heavyweight Sunil Jakhar from Gurdaspur seat.
The other leaders whose fortunes will also be decided in the final phase of polling are former Punjab Deputy Chief Minister SukhbirBadal (Ferozepur), his wife and Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal (Bhatinda) and Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh's wife PerneetKaur in (Patiala), all in Punjab, three-time MP Anurag Thakur in Himachal Pradesh's Hamirpur, former Jharkhand Chief Minister ShibuSoren (Dumka) and former Union Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal, who faces sitting MP KirronKher in Chandigarh.
The Election Commission (EC) is deploying 710 companies of security forces to ensure the last phase of LokSabha polling in West Bengal on Sunday goes off peacefully.
"710 companies of security personnel will be providing 100 per cent coverage during the seventh phase of elections in West Bengal. This will include 512 quick response teams (QRTs) led by assistant commandants," said the EC in a statement. Out of these 710 companies, a total of 147 companies will be deployed in constituencies which fall under the police jurisdiction of Kolkata police jurisdiction. Two QRTs will be deployed in each police station, the EC said.
The seats which go to polls on Sunday are Kolkata North, Kolkata South, Dum Dum, Barasat, Basirhat, Jadavpur, Diamond Harbour, Jaynagar (SC) and Mathurapur (SC). The national poll body on Wednesday decided to cut short the campaign period in the state after violence marred the road show of BJP chief Amit Shah in Kolkata on Tuesday.
BJP and Communist Party of India (Marxist) had complained to the EC over violence and had demanded adequate measures to ensure that polls are held in a free and fair manner. In the sixth phase of polling on May 12, over 63 per cent polling was recorded, with the highest turnout of 80.35 per cent in West Bengal and a minimum of 59.74 per cent in the city-state of Delhi.
Barring stray incidents of violence in West Bengal, the election on 59 seats spread over eight states remained peaceful. The voting took place from 7 am to 6 pm.
"An estimated 63.43 per cent turnout was recorded on Sunday in the 6th phase of LokSabha polls on 59 seats," Deputy Election Commissioner Umesh Sinha had said after the polling finished.

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