Key battles today: Rahul from Wayanad, Shah Gandhinagar

Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 22

Polling will be held on Tuesday for the third and largest phase of Lok Sabha election in 117 seats, including all constituencies in Gujarat and Kerala, with BJP president Amit Shah, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and several Union ministers among prominent candidates in the fray.

While Shah is contesting his first ever Lok Sabha elections from Gandhinagar in his home state Gujarat, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi is contesting from Wayanad in Kerala apart from family bastion Amethi in Uttar Pradesh.

Among the states going to poll tomorrow are: Assam (4), Bihar (5) Chhattisgarh (7), Goa (2) Gujarat (26), Jammu and Kashmir (1) Karnataka (14), Kerala (20) Maharashtra (14) Odisha (6) Tripura (1) Uttar Pradesh (10) West Bengal (5) and two union territories: Dadra and Nagar Haveli (1) Daman and Diu (1). 

Polling will also be held in Anantnag, the only Lok Sabha seat in the country where polling will be held in three phases. While polling in Anantnag district will be held tomorrow, Kulgam will vote on April 29 and Shopian and Pulwama on May 6. Voters in the Tripura East Lok Sabha constituency, where elections were cancelled in Phase 2, will also be polling tomorrow.

On the list are three extreme cases — Kerala, Gujarat and Goa. While in Kerala the BJP does not hold one of the 20 Lok Sabha seat, in Gujarat it has all the 26 and in the tiny beach state Goa both the seats. This time the BJP is contesting in Goa in the absence of its popular leader Manohar Parikkar, who passed away recently.

Overall, at stake tomorrow will be 62 seats of the BJP, 16 of the Congress and remaining with the regional satraps: PDP(1), BJD (6), CPM (8), NCP (4), Samajwadi Party (3), Shiv Sena (2), RJD (2), AIUDF (2), IUML (2), LJP (1), RSP (1), Kerala Congress-M (1), CPI (1), Swabhimani Paksha (1), Trinamool Congress (1) and three Independent candidates. 

The 10 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh going to polls tomorrow will also decide the fate of four members of Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav’s family and the winner of the mega clash between controversial Azam Khan and BJP’s Jaya Prada in Ramnagar. 

Mulayam Singh Yadav and his two nephews, Dharmendra Yadav and Akshay Yadav won from Mainpuri, Badaun and Firozabad, respectively, in 2014. Contesting against Akshay Yadav is Mulayam Singh Yadav’s brother Shivpal Yadav, who has floated a new political party. 

Of the 10 Lok Sabha seats in UP are Moradabad, Rampur, Sambhal, Firozabad, Mainpuri, Etah, Budaun, Aonla, Bareilly and Pilibhit, the BJP had won seven in 2014, including Pilibhit where Rahul’s cousin Varun Gandhi is the saffron candidate this time instead of his mother Maneka Gandhi, the sitting MP, who has been shifted to Sultanpur.

Meanwhile apart from Wayand, another interesting contest will take place in Thiruvananthpuram Lok Sabha constituency where two-time Congress MP Shashi Tharoor is pitted against BJP’s Kummanam Rajasekharan and CPI’s C Divakaranm. In the temple town of Puri, BJP’s much vocal spokesperson Sambit Patra is contesting against sitting MP, Pinaki Mishra of the BJD. 

In Guwahati, Assam, the two top contenders are women-Queen Ojha of the BJP against Bobbeta Sharma of the Congress. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his wife Gursharan Kaur, who are voters there, will also be casting their votes in Gauhati tomorrow. In Madhepura, Bihar, sitting MP, RJD’s Pappu Yadav is locked in a triangular fight against senior JD (U) leader Sharad Yadav and BJP’s Vijay Kumar Singh. 

Phase-III in numbers

117 constituencies across 13 states, 2 UTs 

1,640 candidates in fray 

18.56 crore eligible voters   

2.10 lakh polling booths/stations