Campaigning for the 4th phase of Lok Sabha elections ended at the stroke of 5 pm on Saturday beginning the most crucial period for the two main national parties, especially the BJP. So far polling for 303 seats has been completed that leaves 240 seats up for grabs.

Of the 71 seats where polling will be held on April 29, nearly 40 are in the Hindi heartland, including 13 each in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, 6 in Madhya Pradesh, 5 in Bihar and 3 in Jharkhand. Besides, votes will be cast in 17 seats of Maharashtra, 8 in West Bengal and 6 in Odisha.

The BJP has an uphill task to defend 45 seats of these 71 seats that it had won in 2014. BJP wins in 2014 came from – all 13 in Rajasthan, 12 of 13 in Uttar Pradesh, 5 of six in Madhya Pradesh, 3 of five in Bihar, all three in Jharkhand, eight of 17 in Maharashtra and one of the eight in West Bengal.

The going is a little tough for the BJP especially in Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand where it is facing challenges from the alliances of SP-BSP and RLD and Congress, JMM, RJD and JVM respectively. In Rajasthan and MP too, the BJP is facing a tough challenge from Congress after the latter's win in the recent assembly elections. However, the saffron party seems stronger than before in Bihar because of alliance with the JDU and in West Bengal because of the failure of the opposition to stitch an alliance.

Maharashtra, where all 6 seats of Mumbai are going to the polls on April 29, is also facing an interesting contest between the two alliances – BJP and Shiv Sena on one hand and NCP and Congress on the other. The challenge for the Congress is wresting back some seats from BJP - Shiv Sena alliance that had won all six seats in Mumbai in 2014.

Both the alliances have put up strong faces against each other – that include former union minister Milind Deora of Congress versus Arvind Sawant of Shiv Sena in South Mumbai, Bollywood actress Urmila Matondkar (Congress) versus Gopal Shetty of BJP in north Mumbai, former Congress minister and actor Sunil Dutt's daughter Priya Dutt versus daughter of late BJP leader Pramod Mahajan in north-central Mumbai.

The BJP faces a big challenge in Uttar Pradesh in the fourth phase as it includes several seats in Bundelkhand where agrarian distress is a major issue. The BJP performed pretty well in this region in 2014 but is now facing challenge from Mahagathbandhan.

Odisha fray

All eyes are on the election outcome in Odisha as there has been a remarkable shift in electioneering with a high-voltage campaign led by PM Modi and BJP president Amit Shah.