Stage set for sixth phase of Lok Sabha polls, two former CMs among prominent candidates

NEW DELHI: The penultimate round of the mammoth Lok Sabha battle will see polling on 58 seats across seven states and a union territory on Saturday with the Election Commission having made all arrangements to ensure smooth and peaceful polling. The sixth phase of Lok Sabha polls includes eight seats in Bihar, all 10 seats in Haryana, one seat in Jammu and Kashmir, four in Jharkhand, all seven seats in Delhi, six in Odisha, 14 in Uttar Pradesh and eight in West Bengal. A total of 889 candidates are in the fray.

Forty-two assembly constituencies in Odisha are also going for polls in the sixth phase. Assembly elections are being held in the state simultaneously with the Lok Sabha elections in the state. All parliamentary seats in Delhi and Haryana will go to the polls in this phase. The prominent candidates in the fray include two former Chief Ministers - Manohar Lal Khattar and Mehbooba Mufti.

Khattar is contesting as the BJP candidate from Karnal and Mehbooba Mufti as the PDP nominee from Anantnag-Rajouri. Some of the prominent candidates in the fray include Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra and former Union Minister Maneka Gandhi. Bansuri Swaraj, Somnath Bharti, Manoj Tiwari, Kanhaiya Kumar, Dinesh Lal Yadav alias 'Nirahua', Dharmendra Yadav, Abhijit Gangopadhyay, Agnimitra Paul, Naveen Jindal, Raj Babbar, Deepender Singh Hooda, Kumari Selja and Aparajita Sarangia are among other prominent candidates in the fray. Some of the key seats in this phase include New Delhi, North-East Delhi, North-West Delhi and Chandni Chowk in the national capital and Sultanpur and Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh.

Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag-Rajouri, West Bengal's Tamluk, Medinipur, Haryana's Karnal, Kurukshetra, Gurgaon, Rohtak and Odisha's Bhubaneswar, Puri and Sambalpur are some of the other key seats. Stakes are high for the BJP as also for Congress, Aam Aadmi Party and other constituents of INDIA bloc in this phase of the election. The riveting contest in Delhi has AAP and Congress jointly taking on the BJP, which won all seven Lok Sabha seats in the national capital in the last two elections. While Congress is contesting on three seats in the national capital, AAP is contesting on four. The two parties are part of the INDIA bloc.

The BJP campaign has been bolstered by rallies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and other party leaders. Senior leaders of Congress have also held rallies in the national capital. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who has been released on interim bail by the Supreme Court in the Delhi excise policy case, also sought votes for AAP and Congress candidates. AAP and Congress have also joined hands in Haryana where BJP won all the seats in 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Some seats in the state, including Hisar, are witnessing multi-cornered contests. Apart from BJP and Congress, the electoral stakes are high for INLD, Jannayak Janata Party in Haryana.

The state will also go for assembly polls months after the Lok Sabha election. Odisha is also seeing some key battles in Sambalpur, Bhubaneshwar and Puri. Election Commission said that the concerned CEOs and state officials have been directed to take adequate measures to manage the adverse impact of hot weather or rainfall wherever predicted. Polling stations will have ample shade, drinking water, ramps, toilets, and other basic facilities to ensure that polling takes place in a comfortable and secure environment. The Election Commission appealed to voters to turn out in large numbers at polling stations and vote with responsibility and pride.

It specially reminded voters in urban centres like Delhi, Gurgaon, Faridabad about the right and duty to vote and break the trend of urban apathy. Polling has already has been completed on 428 parliamentary constituencies for 25 states and UTs in the first five phases of general elections. Over 11.13 crore voters include 5.84 crore male, 5.29 crore female and 5120 third gender electors are eligible to exercise their franchise in the sixth phase of Lok Sabha polls. Around 11.4 lakh polling officials will be involved in conducting his phase of election.

Over 8.93 lakh registered over 85-year-old voters, 23,659 voters above 100 years and 9.58 lakh PwD voters have been provided the option to vote from the comfort of their homes in the penultimate phase of Lok Sabha polls. Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha constituency of Jammu and Kashmir will also vote tomorrow.

The poll panel had revised the date of polling from May 7 to May 25 after it received representations for shifting the poll date. The Lok Sabha will be completed on June 1 after the seventh phase of polls in which voters from 57 constituencies will exercise their franchise. The results will be declared on June 4.

A look at key constituencies in the sixth phase of Lok Sabha polls.

DELHI: All seven constituencies will be voting in this phase. BJP won all seven seats in 2014 and in the 2019 general elections.

1) Chandni Chowk: BJP has replaced sitting MP Harsh Vardhan with debutant Praveen Khandelwal to face Congress' JP Agarwal, who is a veteran of Lok Sabha battles. He has fought parliamentary elections 10 times and has been elected four times to Parliament.

2) East Delhi: Harsh Deep Malhotra of the BJP is pitted against Aam Aadmi Party's Kuldeep Kumar, popularly known as Monu. Kuldeep Kumar is MLA from Kondli seat.

3) New Delhi: Bansuri Swaraj, daughter of late Union minister Sushma Swaraj, is facing AAP's Somnath Bharti from the seat.

4) North East Delhi: BJP's sitting MP Manoj Tiwari is pitted against Congress' Kanhaiya Kumar, a student leader from JNU, who contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls unsuccessfully as a CPI candidate from Bihar's Begusarai.

5) North West Delhi: Former BJP MP Udit Raj is seeking to make a comeback from the reserved constituency. The former Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer is pitted against Yogender Chandolia of the BJP, who has served as mayor of North Delhi.

6) South Delhi: BJP's Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, MLA, is facing Aam Aadmi Party's Sahi Ram Pehalwan in this constituency.

7) West Delhi: Kamaljeet Sehrawat from the BJP is facing Mahabal Mishra from AAP. Mishra is a three-time MLA and a former MP.

BIHAR: Eight out of the total 40 constituencies in the state will be polling in this phase.

1) Valmiki Nagar: The constituency was earlier known as Bagaha. JD(U) has pitted Onil Kumar as the NDA candidate against RJD's Deepak Yadav.

2) Paschim Champaran: BJP's sitting MP Sanjay Jaiswal is facing Madan Mohan Tiwari of Congress.

3) Purvi Champararan: BJP's Radha Mohan Singh is in the fray as NDA candidate against Rajesh Kushwaha of Vikassheel Insaan Party and of INDIA bloc. Vijay Kumar Sahani of Rashtriya Jansambhavna Party is also in the fray.

4) Sheohar: Lovely Anand of the JD-U is contesting against Ritu Jaiswal of RJD.

5) Vaishali: Sitting MP Veena Devi of the LJP (Ram Vilas) is facing Vijay Kumar Shukla of the RJD.

6) Gopalganj: Sitting JD(U) MP Alok Kumar Suman is taking on Prem Nath Chanchal of Vikassheel Insaan Party and Dinanath Manjhi of AIMIM.

7) Siwan: RJD's Awadh Bihari Chaudhary is pitted against Vijay Lakshmi Devi of JD(U)

8) Maharajganj: BJP's Janardan Singh 'Sigriwal' is contesting against Akash Kumar Singh of the Congress.

HARYANA: The state bordering Delhi has multi-cornered contests on some of its 10 seats with a former Chief Minister also in the fray.

1) Ambala: This city, which is famous for appliances manufactured here, is seeing a contest between BJP's Banto Devi Kataria, who is the widow of late MP Rattan Lal Kataria, and Varun Chaudhary of the Congress. Kiran Punia of the JJP and Gurpreet Singh of the INLD are also in the fray.

2) Kurukshetra: A three-cornered contest is taking place between BJP's Naveen Jindal, AAP's Sushil Gupta, and INLD's Abhay Chautala.

3) Sirsa: Former Union Minister Kumari Selja of Congress is pitted against Ashok Tanwar of BJP.

4) Hisar: Ranjit Singh of the BJP is facing INLD's Sunaina Chautala, JJP's Naina Chautala and Jai Prakash of Congress.

5) Karnal: Former Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar is taking on Congress' Divyanshu Budhiraja.

6) Sonipat: Mohan lal Badoli of BJP is pitted against Satpal Brahmachari of the Congress.

7) Rohtak: Incumbent BJP MP Arvind Sharma is facing Deepinder Singh Hooda of the Congress and Ravinder of JJP.

8) Bhiwani-Mahendragarh: BJP's Dharambir Singh is pitted against Rao Dhan Singh of Congress and Bahadhur Singh of the JJP.

9) Gurgaon: Union Minister MP Rao Inderjit of the BJP is facing actor-turned-politician Raj Babbar.

10) Faridabad: Union Minister Krishan Pal Gujjar is facing Congress veteran Mahendra Pratap Singh while the JJP has fielded Nalin Hooda and INLD has fielded Sunil Tewatia.

JHARKHAND: Four out of a total of 14 constituencies in the state will see polling in this phase.

1) Giridih: AJSU's Chandra Prakash Chaudhary is pitted against JMM's Tundi MLA Mathura Mahato and student union leader Jairam Mahato.

2) Dhanbad: BJP's Baghmara MLA Dulu Mahato and Congress' Anupama Singh, wife of the party's Bermo legislator Kumar Jaimangal, are in the electoral battle.

3) Ranchi: Congress' Yashaswini Sahay, daughter of former Union Minister Subodh Kant Sahay, is facing BJP's sitting MP Sanjay Seth.

4) Jamshedpur: BJP's sitting MP Bidyut Baran Mahato is contesting against JMM's Baharagora MLA Samir Mohanty.

ODISHA: Six out of total 21 seats will face polls in this phase.

1) Sambalpur: Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan is contesting against Nagendra Kumar Pradhan of Congress and Pranab Prakash Das of the BJD.

2) Keonjhar: In this constituency reserved for the Scheduled Tribes, Ananta Nayak from the BJP is facing Binod Bihari Nayak of the Congress and Dhanurjaya Sidu of the BJD.

3) Bhubaneshwar: In the capital city of Odisha, BJP's Aparjita Sarangi is in contest against Syed Yashir Nawaz of Congress and Manmath Kumar Routray of the BJD.

4) Dhenkanal: Rudra Narayan Pany of BJP, Sushmita Behra of the Congress and Abhisnash Samal of BJD are in contest from this constituency.

5) Puri: BJP's Sambit Patra is facing Arup Mohan Patanayak of the BJD and Jay Narayan Patnaik of the Congress.

6) Cuttack: Bharturari Mahtab of the BJP is facing Suresh Mohapatra of the Congress and Santrut Misra of the BJD.

UTTAR PRADESH: Fourteen out of a total of 80 constituencies will be voting in this phase.

1) Sultanpur: BJP's Maneka Gandhi is up against Bhim Nishad of the SP and BSP's Udraj Verma.

2) Pratapgarh: Sitting MP Sangam Lal Gupta of the BJP is facing SP Singh Patel from the Samajwadi Party.

3) Phulpur: Praveen Patel of the BJP is facing SP's Amaranth Maurya and Jagannath Path of BSP.

4) Allahabad: This pilgrim city will see a contest between Neeraj Tripathi of the BJP and Ujjwal Rewati Raman Singh of the Congress.

5) Azamgarh: Dinesh Lal Yadav 'Nirahua' of the BJP, Dharmendra Yadav from the SP and BSP candidate Sabeeha Ansari are in fray.

6) Jaunpur: BJP candidate Kripashankar Singh is facing SP's Babu Singh Kushwaha and Shyam Singh Yadav from BSP. The other constituencies going for polls in this phase are Ambedkar Nagar, Shrawasti, Domariyaganj, Basti, Sant Kabir Nagar, Lalganj, Machhlishahr and Bhadohi.

WEST BENGAL: Eight out of 42 seats in the state will go to the polls in this phase.

1) Tamluk: The headquarters of the Purba Medinipur district will see a contest between BJP's Abhijeet Gangopadhyay, Debangshu Bhattacharya of Trinamool Congress and Sayan Banerjee of CPI-M. Abhijeet Gangopadhyay is a former High Court judge.

2) Kanthi: This parliamentary constituency will see contest between Shomendu Adhikari of the BJP, Uttam Barik of the TMC and Urbasi Banerjee of Congress.

3) Ghatal: BJP's Hiranmoy Chattopadhyay is pitted against Deepak Adhikari of the Trinamool Congress and Tapan Ganguly of CPI.

4) Jhargram: The reserved is seeing a face-off between BJP's Panat Tudu, Kalipada Saren of TMC and Sonamani Tudu of CPM.

5) Medinipore: BJP's Agnamitra Paul is contesting against June Maliah of Trinamool and Biplab Bhat of CPI.

6) Purulia: Jyotirmay Singh Mahato of BJP is in the fray against Nepal Chandra Mahato of the Congress and Shantiram Mahato of the Trinamool Congress.

7) Bankura: Subhas Sarkar of BJP is facing Arup Chakraborty of TMC and and Nilanjan Dasgupta of CPM.

8) Bishnupur: Khan Saumitra of BJP, a sitting MP, is contesting Sujata Mondal of TMC and Sital Chandra Kaibartya of CPM on the reserved seat.

JAMMU AND KASHMIR: The Union Territory has seen enthusiastic turnout in the earlier phases.

Anantnag-Rajouri is seeing keen battle between People's Democratic Party chief Mehbooba Mufti, Mian Altaf of the National Conference, and Zafar Iqbal Manhas of Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party.