Polling for all 25 seats in Rajasthan, 10 in Haryana, 7 in Delhi, 3 in Bihar, 1 in J&K, 4 in Punjab, 18 in UP and 17 in West Bengal to be held in this phase

New Delhi, May 5
Campaigning ended today for fourth and penultimate round of Lok Sabha polls that will see BJP president Rajnath Singh taking the electoral plunge and veterans like Lalu Prasad hedging their bets by contesting from two seats.

The fate of Congress' Pranab Mukherjee, 73, and National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah, 71, both of whom are contesting only their second Lok Sabha elections, would also be decided along with that of SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav. Star campaigners of the UPA, the NDA and the Third Front traversed through the country telling voters why the other alliance should not be elected, while actively sending out feelers to one another for post-poll tie-ups.

Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi today said: “After elections, all options are open… We have always been open to post-poll alliances.” He appeared to reach out to Nitish Kumar, whose JD-U is an NDA constituent, and Chandrababu Naidu, whose TDP is part of the Third Front. He also expressed the hope that Left parties would back Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister.

“I respect Naidu. He has done a good job... I am not saying only we have leaders, there are leaders who are in the opposition as well. Nitish, for example... I think the intention (to work) is there,” Gandhi said.

Lalu Prasad, who has already entered polls from Saran Lok Sabha seat, is also contesting from Pataliputra to further secure his place in Parliament.

Former BJP strongman Kalyan Singh is fighting as an Independent with the support of Samajwadi Party from Etah. The polling for all the 25 seats in Rajasthan, 10 in Haryana and seven in Delhi would be completed at one go.

Elections will also be held to three seats in Bihar, one in Jammu and Kashmir, four in Punjab, 18 in Uttar Pradesh and 17 in West Bengal.

The issue of Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi’s name being dropped from CBI’s most wanted list in connection with the Bofors scam spilled over into this round of campaigning as well, but Rahul Gandhi said he was far from embarrassed by the development and chose to call it a “dead” issue.

At the end of the fourth phase, elections would be completed to 457 of the 545-member Lok Sabha. As many as 9.46 crore voters are eligible to cast their ballots in this phase across 1.29 lakh polling booths that would be manned by over six lakh election officials. — PTI