lok-sabha-elections

Updated: Apr 29, 2019 07:21 IST

The fourth phase of the Lok Sabha elections 2019 will be held on April 29, Monday. In this round, 72 Lok Sabha constituencies across nine states will go to polls in the seven-phase election.

The first three phases have seen polling in 303 of the 543 seats in the Lok Sabha.

A total of 963 candidates from across parties in the nine states will be testing their luck. Among these 963 candidates, 210 are facing criminal charges with 158 having serious cases and 12 of them being convicted in criminal cases.

Among these 72 seats will be the sole Lok Sabha constituency of Anantnag in Jammu and Kashmir. Elections in Anantnag are being held across three phases. The fourth phase will be Anantnag’s second round of voting with the third round to be held in the fifth phase.

Odisha and Madhya Pradesh will see voting on six seats each with West Bengal going to the ballot on eight seats. In Maharashtra, 17 seats will go to poll, while 13 seats each in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh will cast their votes. In Bihar, five seats will go to polls along with three in Jharkhand.

Of the 72 seats going to polls on Monday, the BJP had won 45 - all 13 of Rajasthan, 12 out of the 13 going to vote in Uttar Pradesh, five in Madhya Pradesh, three each in Bihar and Jharkhand, eight in Maharashtra and one in West bengal.

In Jharkhand’s three seats, Chatra, Palamu and Lohardaga, the BJP will be banking on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s charisma to register a victory over the combined might of the Congress, JMM, RJD and theJharkhand vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik). The opposition alliance will be looking to ensure that the BJP does not repeat its performance of winning 12 of the 14 seats going to poll on April 29.

In Chatra, the BJP is facing voter dissatisfaction with the sitting MP Sunil Singh, who is reported to not have visited the constituency even once in the past five years. Though the BJP had initially planned not to field him, Sunil Singh got a ticket thanks to the party’s Rajput lobby.

In Palamau, the BJP has fielded sitting MP and former director general of police VD Ram against the RJD’s Ghuram Ram. VD RAm is considered to be a safe candidate for the BJP in the Palamau seat.

Lohardaga is where the BJP will face a tough contest from the Congress, with the latter hoping to wrest the constituency from the BJP.

In Bihar, which will see voting on five seats, the situation has changed since the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

At that time, the ruling JD(U) had fought the elections opposite the BJP, but this time around, the two parties have come together in an alliance and are contesting elections together. Ironically, its erstwhile ally, the RJD has opted to tie up with the Congress and some other smaller parties in the state.

In Samastipur, LJP leader Ramchandra Paswan will be testing his luck.

In Madhya Pradesh, chief minister Kamal Nath will be fighting a battle to save his honour considering that he took charge of the state barely five months ago after the Congress defeated the BJP in a narrowly fought assembly election. The Congress will be looking for a somewhat better performance of the assembly elections.

In Maharashtra, all the seats in Mumbai will go to polls with Congress leaders former union minister Milind Deora, actor Urmila Matondkar and actor Sanjay Dutt’s sister Priya Dutt in the fray. From the BJP, the daughter of late BJP leader Pramod Mahajan, Poonam Mahajan, will be testing her luck.

In 2014, the BJP had made a clean sweep of the city. The Congress will be trying hard to reclaim its support base in the city.

In Rajasthan, which the BJP lost to the Congress in the a narrowly fought assembly election barely five months ago, the traditional seats of chief minister Ashoke Gehlot and his predecessor Vasundhara Raje will go to polls.

Along the South-Eastern coastline of the country, the BJP will be looking to make a dent in the Biju Janata Dal’s (BJD) bastion of Odisha. Former BJD leader Jay Panda, who moved to the BJP ahead of the elections will be contesting against actor-turned politician Anubhav Mohanty.

Uttar Pradesh’s Bundelkhand region will go to the hustings. In 2014, the BJP had had a good outing in the region. However, this time around, it will be facing a tough contest from the Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party alliance in the state.

From Kanpur, where veteran BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi had contested in 2014, the BJP has fielded state minister Satyadev Pachauri, who will go up against Congress’s Sriprakash Jaiswal.

On Mamata Banerjee’s turf, West Bengal, the BJP has been campaigning aggressively and has taken numerous potshots at the state chief minister. The BJP will be hoping to win some seats from the Trinamool Congress which has dominated the state since 2011.