2024-05-13 21:41:07
New Delhi : Under the fourth phase of Lok Sabha elections in the country, voting will be held on Monday for 96 Lok Sabha seats in 10 states and union territories including Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. In this phase, the electoral fate of many prominent candidates like Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav, Union Minister Giriraj Singh, Trinamool Congress leader Mahua Moitra and AIMIM’s Asaduddin Owaisi will be decided. In Andhra Pradesh, elections will be held on May 13 for all 25 Lok Sabha seats and also for all 175 assembly seats. There is a triangular contest in the state between YSRC, Congress-led ‘India’ alliance and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). The NDA in the state includes BJP, Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP and Pawan Kalyan’s Janasena Party. In this phase, voting is also to be held on 28 assembly seats of Odisha.
Which giants from which state are trying their luck?
A total of 1,717 candidates are in the fray for Lok Sabha seats. In this phase, 1.92 lakh polling stations have been created for more than 17.70 crore eligible voters, including 8.73 women. Some of the prominent candidates in this phase include former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav (Kannauj, UP) and Union ministers Giriraj Singh (Begusarai, Bihar), Nityanand Rai (Ujiarpur, Bihar) and Raosaheb Danve (Jalna, Maharashtra). Apart from these, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Choudhary and Trinamool Congress candidate and former cricketer Yusuf Pathan (both from Baharampur, West Bengal), BJP’s Pankaja Munde (Beed, Maharashtra), AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi (Hyderabad-Telangana) and Andhra Pradesh. State Congress President Y S Sharmila (Cuddapah) is in the fray. Union Minister Ajay Kumar Mishra is trying to score a hat-trick from Kheri seat of Uttar Pradesh. His son is an accused in the 2021 Lakhimpuri violence case. Mahua Moitra of Trinamool Congress is also trying to reach Parliament again from Krishnanagar seat of West Bengal. Actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha is contesting elections again from Asansol. Here he is facing competition from senior BJP leader S.S. Ahluwalia. Former BJP West Bengal unit president Dilip Ghosh and Trinamool Congress’s Kirti Azad are contesting from Bardhaman-Durgapur.
NDA MPs on 40 seats out of 96
Till now, voting has been completed on 283 out of 543 seats in the third phase of Lok Sabha elections. 17 from Telangana, 25 from Andhra Pradesh, 13 from Uttar Pradesh, five from Bihar, four from Jharkhand, eight from Madhya Pradesh, 11 from Maharashtra, four from Odisha, eight from West Bengal and one Lok Sabha seat from Jammu and Kashmir (Srinagar). Voting will take place on Monday. About 17.48 lakh voters are eligible to vote in the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat elections. There are 24 candidates in the fray. This is the first major election in Kashmir after most of the provisions of Article 370 were removed in August 2019. National Conference has fielded Shia leader Agha Syed Ruhullah Mehdi in the election. While youth leader Waheed Para is in the fray from the People’s Democratic Party. Apni Party has made Ashraf Mir its candidate while BJP has not fielded a candidate. The BJP-led NDA currently has MPs on more than 40 of these 96 Lok Sabha seats.
Campaigning for the fourth phase of Lok Sabha elections has ended, see how many seats will be voted in which states on May 13.
Less voting than last time in three phases
Voting in the first three phases of Lok Sabha elections was 66.14 percent, 66.71 percent and 65.68 percent respectively. The Election Commission believes that heat wave conditions are one of the reasons for lower turnout in the last three phases compared to the 2019 parliamentary elections. The normal timing of voting is from 7 am to 6 pm. The voting time is reduced keeping in mind the terrain, sunset time and security situation. The next three phases of voting in the country will be held on May 20, May 25 and June 1. Counting of votes will take place on June 4.