49 seats go to polls in Phase 5 of Lok Sabha elections today

NEW DELHI: The stage is set for interesting battles across eight states and union territories in the fifth phase of Lok Sabha polls, with some seats turning into prestige contests for political dynasties and senior leaders seeking to retain their influence. A total of 49 constituencies from six states and two union territories are set for polls on Monday in the fifth phase of polling.

The contests include Amethi and Raebareli, considered traditional strongholds of Congress in Uttar Pradesh. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is contesting from Raebaereli, a seat represented by his mother Sonia Gandhi since 2004. Rahul Gandhi has also contested from Wayanad in Kerala and it remains to be seen if he wins both seats. In 2019, Rahul Gandhi lost the election in Amethi to Union Minister Smriti Irani.

The party has fielded its dedicated worker, KL Sharma, from the seat to take on Smriti Irani. Former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad's daughter, Rohini Acharya, is in the fray from Saran. Lok Sabha seats in Mumbai are among 13 seats in Maharashtra that will see voting on Monday and the high-profile candidates include Union Minister Piysuh Goyal. While candidates from Congress and the BJP are in the fray, it is also a battle that will decide who among the Shiv Sena factions has the most support among voters.

The battle in Ladakh is also interesting, with an independent candidate giving a run for money to candidates from the BJP and Congress. In Bihar's Hajipur, the LJP (Ram Vilas) leader is seeking to retain the legacy of his father, Ram Vilas Paswan, a former union minister who won the seat several times. The simultaneous assembly and Lok Sabah polls in Odisha began with the fourth phase on May 13.

In the fifth phase, on May 20, five of the state's total 21 Lok Sabha seats and 35 assembly constituencies will go to the polls. A total of 695 candidates are in the fray for the 49 Lok Sabha seats in this phase.

In Bihar, voters from five constituencies--Sitamarhi, Madhubani, Muzaffarpur, Saran, and Hajipur--will vote in the fifth phase of the polls.

1. Saran: This high-profile constituency will see Rohini Acharya, daughter of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo and former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, making her electoral debut. A doctor by profession, Rohini is contesting against BJP candidate and sitting MP Rajiv Pratap Rudy.

2. Sitamarhi: Arjun Ray of the RJD is pitted against Devesh Chandra Thakur of the JD (U).

3. Madhubani: Ali Ashraf Fatmi (RJD) is facing Ashok Kumar Yadav (BJP).

4. Hajipur: Chirag Paswan (LJP-Ram Vilas), who is the NDA candidate, is pitted against.

Maharashtra: Thirteen out of the total 48 parliamentary seats in the state, mainly in the country's financial capital, Mumbai and Thane, will go to polls in the fifth phase.

1. Dhule: Subhash Ramrao Bhamre of the BJP is in the fray against Shobha Dinesh Bachhav of Congress

2. Dindori: Union Minister Bharati Pravin Pawar of the BJP is contesting against Bhaskar Bhagare of the NCP (Sharad Pawar)

3. Nashik: Rajabhau Waje of the Shiv Sena (UBT) is facing Godse Hemant Tukaram of Shiv Sena

4. Palghar: Hemant Vishnu Savara of BJP is facing Bharti Kamadi of the Shiv Sena (UBT)

5. Bhiwandi: Kapil Moreshwar Patil of the BJP is facing Suresh Mhatre of the NCP (Sharad Pawar)

6. Kalyan: Vaishali Darekar of Shiv Sena (UBT) is pitted against Shrikant Eknath Shinde of the Shiv Sena.

7. Thane: Rajan Vichare of the Shiv Sena (UBT) is facing Naresh Mhaske of the Shiv Sena.

8. Mumbai North: Union minister and BJP leader Piyush Goyal is contesting Lok Sabha election for the first time. The BJP dropped its sitting MP, Gopal Shetty. Goyal is pitted against Bhushan Patil of the Congress.

9. Mumbai North-West: Amol Kirtikar of the Shiv Sena (UBT) is facing Ravindra Dattaram Waikar of the Shiv Sena.

10. Mumbai North-East: Mihir Kotecha of the BJP is contesting Sanjaydina Patil of the ShivSena (UBT).

11. Mumbai North-Central: Ujwal Nikam of the BJP is facing Gaikwad Varsha Eknath of the Congress.

12. Mumbai South-Central: Anil Desai of the Shiv Sena (UBT) is pitted against Rahul Shewale of the Shiv Sena.

13. Mumbai South: Arvind Ganpat Sawant of Shiv Sena (UBT) is pitted against Yamini Yashwant Jadhav of Shiv Sena.

Jharkhand: Three parliamentary constituencies--Chatra, Koderma, and Hazaribagh--will go in for polling in the fifth phase. Along with this by-poll, a Gandey legislative assembly seat will also be held, which will see Kalpana Murmu Soren, wife of former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, contest as the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) candidate. The Assembly seat fell vacant after the resignation of JMM MLA Sarfaraz Ahmad, who is now Rajya Sabha member of the party.

1. Koderma: In this mica belt, Union Minister and BJP candidate Annapurna Devi is facing Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) candidate Vinod Singh, a three-time MLA from Bagodar and JMM rebel leader Jai Prakash Verma, who is contesting as an independent candidate. The constituency was represented by Jharkhand's first Chief Minister, Babulal Marandi, in 2004, after the state was carved out of Bihar.

2. Hazaribagh: In this BJP stronghold, the party has fielded Manish Jaiswal, who is contesting against Congress candidate Jai Prakash Bhai Patel, a former Mandu MLA.

3. Chatra: In the Naxal-affected constituency, BJP's Kalicharan Singh is contesting Krishna Nand Tripathi of the Congress, a former MLA from Daltonganj, and a former minister.

Odisha: Five of the state's total 21 Lok Sabha seats--Bargarh, Sundargarh, Bolangir, Kandhamal, Aska, and 35 assembly constituencies will go to the polls.

1. Bargarh: The former MLA from Padmapur, Pradeep Purohit from the BJP, is facing former MPs from Bargarh,Sanjay Bhoi from the Congress, and Parineeta Mishra of the BJD.

2. Sundargarh: In this ST reserved constituency, BJD candidate and former Indian hockey legend Dilip Tirkey is pitted against former Union Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram of the BJP and Janardan Dehury from the Congress.

3. Bolangir: Sitting MP Sangeeta Singhdeo, a member of the erstwhile royal family and the candidate for BJP, is facing BJD's Surendra Singh Bhoi and Congress' candidate and Odia actor Manoj Mishra.

4. Kandhamal: BJD's sitting MP Achyutananda Samanta is facing Sukanta Kumar Panigrahi of the BJP and Amir Chand Nayak of the Congress in this tribal-dominated seat.

5. Aska: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik made his electoral debut in this seat in 1997 and subsequently won in 1998 and 1999. BJD's Ranjita Sahu is pitted against BJP's Anita Subhadarshini, who is the daughter of former minister Ramakrushna Patnai. Congress' Debakanta Sarma is also in the fray.

Uttar Pradesh: With 80 Lok Sabha seats at stake, Uttar Pradesh is key to the BJP's target of the NDA winning 400 Lok Sabha seats. The BJP won 62 of these seats in 2019 and 71 in the 2014 general elections. Of the 14 seats in UP that will go to the polls in phase five, BJP had won 13. The BJP lost Raebareli, which was won by Sonia Gandhi.

1. Mohanlalganj: The seat has been represented by different parties over the years. Congress emerged victorious five times, Samajwadi Party four times, and BJP three times, with Lok Dal and Janata Dal securing victory once each. The three main candidates are Union Minister Kaushal Kishore, who is seeking a third term, the INDIA bloc candidate -- SP's RK Chaudhary; and BSP's Rajesh Kumar.

2. Lucknow: The seat that has been represented by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee is a BJP stronghold. Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is seeking a third straight term. He is pitted against Ravidas Mehrotra of SP and BSP's Sarwar Malik.

3. Raebareli: Rahul Gandhi is in the fray in a prestigious battle. After representing Amethi from 2004 to 2019, he has shifted to Raebareli. BJP has fielded state minister Dinesh Pratap Singh. BSP has fielded Thakur Prasad Yadav.

4. Amethi: In the last Lok Sabha elections, the constituency witnessed a significant political shift as Rahul Gandhi lost to BJP's Smriti Irani. Congress has fielded long-time Gandhi family loyalist KL Sharma against Iran, and BSP has fielded Nanhe Singh Chauhan.

5. Jalaun: BJP has had a successful run in the reserved seat. Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma is a five-time BJP MP from Jalaun, won it in 1996, 1998, 2004, 2014 and 2019. Verma is in the hunt for a hat-trick in this election, and if he is able to emerge victorious, he would be the first MP since 1971 to score three consecutive wins from Jalaun. The Samajwadi Party, which is fighting the elections as part of the INDIA bloc, has fielded Narayan Das Ahirwar. BSP has fielded Suresh Chandra Gautam. A demand for the creation of a Bundelkhand state by carving out districts from Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh has been made for decades.

6. Jhansi: Anurag Sharma from the BJP is contesting against the Congress' Pradeep Jatin Aditya, a former union minister, in this election. BSP has fielded Ravi Prakash to contest from the seat.

7. Hamirpur: The BJP is aiming for a hat-trick in pursuit of its larger goal of winning maximum seats in Uttar Pradesh. The party has given the Hamirpur ticket for the third consecutive time to Pushpendra Singh Chandel. The last time Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party won the seat was in 2009. The party is posing a challenge to the BJP and has fielded Ajendra Singh Lodhi. The BSP has fielded Nirdosh Kumar Dixit.

8. Banda: The three-way contest in Banda is among the BJP's RK Singh Patel, the SP's Krishna Devi Shivshankar Patel, and the BSP's Mayank Dwivedi.

9. Fatehpur: Fatehpur is known to be a swing constituency, with no party elected more than twice. This leaves the BJP with a formidable challenge as it hopes to score a hat-trick and convert Fatehpur into a bastion of sorts. The candidates in the fray are the BJP's Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, a union minister, SP's Naresh Chandra Uttam Patel; and the BSP's Dr Manish Singh Sachan.

10. Kaushambi: It will be a triangular fight between Vinod Kumar Sonkar of the BJP, Pushpendra Saroj of the Samajwadi Party, and Shubh Narayan of the BSP. The BJP won it in the past two Lok Sabha elections, and the SP is posing a challenge.

11. Barabanki: The BJP faces a Samajwadi challenge in Barabanki. The party initially fielded Upendra Singh Rawat. However, he had to be replaced owing to a storm that erupted after a video of the candidate surfaced online. The BJP replaced Upendra Rawat with Rajrani Rawat. The Congress has fielded Tanuj Punia, and Shiv Kumar Doharey is a BSP candidate.

12. Faizabad: The constituency includes Ayodhya, where Pran Prathistha of Ram Lalla was held in the grand Ram temple in January. The BJP leadership has sought to put Ayodhya on the world map and has also ramped up physical infrastructure in the city. The party has fielded sitting MP Lallu Singh for a third term. He will take on Awadhesh Prasad (SP) and Sacchidanand Pandey (BSP).

13. Kaiserganj: Represented by controversial MP and former Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, the BJP fielded his son Karan Bhushan Singh. He is in fray with the Samajwadi Party's Bhagat Ram, while the Bahujan Samaj Party has fielded Narendra Pandey. Brij Bhushan Singh has won from the seat six times. Brij Bhushan's elder son, Prateek, was also an MLA from Gonda twice.

14. Gonda: Gonda will see a tough fight between the BJP's Kirti Vardhan Singh, the SP's Shreya Verma and the BSP's Saurabh. The BJP has been winning the Gonda Lok Sabha constituency for the past two elections.

West Bengal: The BJP has gained some ground in West Bengal. In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP won two seats and in the 2019 polls, it won 18 seats (over 40 per cent votes). The ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) won 22 of the 42 seats in 2019 (over 43 per cent votes).

1. Bangaon: BJP's Shantanu Thakur is competing against TMC's Biswajit Das and INDIA bloc candidate Pradip Kumar Biswas. Shantanu Thakur wrested the seat from the Trinamool Congress in 2019. Thakur belongs to the Matua community.

2. Barrackpur: BJP's Arjun Singh defeated Trinamool Congress' Dinesh Trivedi with a margin of 14,857 votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. In this election, Arjun Singh is facing challenges from Partha Bhowmick of the TMC and Debdut Ghosh of the CPI (M).

3. Howrah: Considered a traditional stronghold of the TMC, party candidate Prasun Banerjee is in fray with Rathin Chakravarty from the BJP and Sabyasachi Chatterjee from the CPM.

4. Uluberia: TMC's Sajda Ahmed is contesting against Arun Uday Pal Chaudhary of the BJP and Azahar Mollick from the Congress.

5. Sreerampur: TMC's Kalyan Banerjee, a key party leader, is in the fray against the BJP's Kabir Shankar Bose and CPI (M)'s young gun, Dipsita Dhar. Kalyan Banerjee has held sway over this constituency since 2009.

6. Hooghly: The contest has two Bengali cine stars. BJP's Locket Chatterjee is facing TMC's Rachna Banerjee, a newcomer to politics. Manadip Ghosh of CPI (M) is also in the fray.

7. Arambag: Mitali from TMC is up against Arup Kanti Digar from the BJP and Biplab Kumar Moitra from CPI (M) in this reserved seat. Jammu and Kashmir: It is the first Lok Sabha election in Jammu and Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019. Baramulla, the National Conference leader and former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, is in the fray against Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Conference (JKPC) chief Sajad Lone and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Mir Mohammad Fayaz. Jailed independent candidate Abdul Rashid Sheikh is also in the fray.

Ladakh: The largest Lok Sabha seat in the country in terms of area. The constituency borders China and Pakistan and has a lot of geo-strategic significance. Local issues include the demand for the inclusion of Ladakh in the sixth schedule of the Constitution. The BJP has replaced its sitting MP, Jamyang Tsering Namgyal, with Tashi Gyalson.

Congress has fielded Tsering Namgyal. Meanwhile, independent candidate, Haneefa Jan is seen to have an edge amid perceptions that votes in Leh will be divided between two candidates from the region.