Election Phase 6: Key candidates, major seats, exciting contests in 6 states, 2 UTs

With about 79 per cent of the polling done in the first five phases, the largest democracy in the world will brace for the sixth of the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections on May 25, when 58 of the 543 seats will go to polls.

Once this phase is done, only about 10 per cent of the seats will be left for the final phase on June 1.

All 10 seats in Haryana will go to polls in this phase, and so will all seven in national capital Delhi.

Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and West Bengal will brace for their sixth-phase polls as all three states are voting in all seven phases.

Jharkhand and Odisha, which are voting in four phases, will prepare for their third. In Odisha, where simultaneous polls are also being held to elect the members of the 147-seat state Assembly, 43 segments under the six Lok Sabha seats will go to polls as well.

Jammu and Kashmir will finish polling for this time, as the last of its five seats, Anantnag-Rajouri, where polling was deferred from May 7, will finally vote in this phase.

Here are the key seats, major candidates, and the keenly-watched battles to look forward to in this phase.

UTTAR PRADESH

Constituencies going to polls: 14 of 80 (Sultanpur, Pratapgarh, Phulpur, Allahabad, Ambedkar Nagar, Shravasti, Domariyaganj, Basti, Sant Kabir Nagar, Lalganj, Azamgarh, Jaunpur, Machhlishahr, Bhadohi)

The penultimate phase of polling in these 14 constituencies of UP, a majority of them in the state’s Purvanchal region, is arguably the BJP’s Achilles’ Heel in the current election. Economically impoverished and deeply divided along caste lines, these constituencies in UP are where the social justice and “save Constitution” planks of INDIA bloc partners Samajwadi Party and the Congress find high resonance.

In the 2019 polls, which Akhilesh Yadav’s SP and Mayawati’s BSP had fought in alliance, the BJP had won eight of these 14 seats while its ally, the NISHAD party, had won from Sant Kabir Nagar. While this may seem like an impressive performance, it is pertinent to note that the BJP’s victory margins in several of these constituencies was slender compared to the huge leads it had over its rivals in most of the seats in UP’s western and central regions.

Besides, of the 15 seats the SP and the BSP had collectively bagged in the state in 2019, five — Azamgarh (SP), Ambedkar Nagar, Shrawasti, Lalganj and Jaunpur (all BSP) — were from this lot that goes to polls on May 25. Two more were from the set of Purvanchal constituencies that will go to polls in the final phase of voting on June 1.

Though the SP and the BSP are contesting the current elections separately, many political observers believe that a large chunk of the Dalit votes that Mayawati had secured in 2019 has been steadily moving towards the SP since the 2022 UP Assembly elections, given that her party has perceptibly become an inert electoral player. In the 2022 Assembly polls, though the BJP under Yogi Adityanath had managed to return to power in the state for a second consecutive term, its main electoral losses to a resurgent SP were primarily from Purvanchal. The Congress, with a Dalit national president in Mallikarjun Kharge and the SP as an ally, together with a strident poll narrative of socio-economic justice, is also hoping to woo the scheduled caste voters, along with those of the many backward classes that populate this region.

The BJP is banking on Narendra Modi and Adityanath’s popularity, the central government’s distribution of free rations and multiple schemes for financial assistance to the poor along with the party’s alliances with regional Dalit and OBC caste-based parties, such as Anupriya Patel’s Apna Dal (S), OP Rajbhar’s SBSP, and Sanjay Nishad’s NISHAD party, to retain its electoral dominance in these seats.

Among the constituencies to watch out for in the sixth phase are Sultanpur, where BJP’s Maneka Gandhi is up against the SP’s Ram Bhual Nishad (a Dalit candidate fielded in an unreserved seat), Ambedkar Nagar, where the incumbent BSP MP Ritesh Pandey is now contesting on a BJP ticket against SP veteran Lalji Verma and Azamgarh, where Akhilesh Yadav’s cousin Dharmendra Yadav is trying to avenge the SP’s 2022 bypoll loss against Bhojpuri actor-turned-incumbent BJP MP Dinesh Yadav ‘Nirahua’.

Of interest would also be the Jaunpur constituency where the BJP has fielded Congress turncoat Kripashankar Singh against the SP Babu Singh Kushwaha and the Shrawasti seat where BSP’s 2019 winner Ram Shiromani Verma is pitted against the BJP’s Saket Misra. The Allahabad constituency is also set for a keen contest between Congress candidate Ujjwal Raman Singh, son of SP co-founder and former Allahabad MP Rewati Raman Singh, and the BJP’s Neeraj Tripathi.

HARYANA

Constituencies going to polls: 10 of 10 (Ambala, Kurukshetra, Sirsa, Hisar, Karnal, Sonipat, Rohtak, Bhiwani-Mahendragarh, Gurgaon, Faridabad)

As all 10 constituencies go to polls in Haryana, it’s a high-stakes battle for the BJP, as its National Democratic Alliance (NDA) had won each one in 2019.

However, the battle will be difficult for the BJP this time because the state government under Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini is now in the minority in the Assembly — for the first time in 10 years.

To make matters worse, the farmers’ protest in Punjab and Haryana are fresh in the minds of people, and its impact was visible when Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) under Dushyant Chautala withdrew support from the BJP government in Haryana.

Haryana has played a crucial role in the rise of BJP in North India, as the saffron party had won seven of the 10 seats in the 2014 polls. The formation of the BJP-led government at the Centre in 2014 had also helped the saffron party further consolidate its position in Haryana, when it came to power for the first time in November 2014.

The upcoming Lok Sabha elections will be the first test for Nayab Singh Saini who took over control of the state from Manohar Lal Khattar who was removed from the top post after the JJP decided to break the alliance with BJP.

WEST BENGAL

Constituencies going to polls: 8 of 42 (Tamluk, Kanthi, Ghatal, Jhargram, Medinipur, Purulia, Bankura, Bishnupur)

West Bengal is up for some interesting contests in the sixth phase as constituencies in the tribal belts of East and West Midnapore, Jhargram, Purulia, and Bankura districts — much of it making up the former Maoist stronghold of Jangalamahal — go to polls.

Ghatal is set for “star wars”, with two big stars of the Bengali popular film industry — Dev alias Dipak Adhikari and Hiran aka Hiranmoy Chatterjee — coming head to head in the Midnapore-based constituency. While Dev is the two-term sitting TMC MP from this seat, Hiran is currently the BJP MLA of Kharagpur as well as a councillor in Kharagpur Municipality.

In the Medinipur seat, fashion designer Agnimitra Paul of the BJP faces veteran actress June Malia of the TMC. Both are sitting MLAs — Paul from Asansol Dakshin and Malia from the Medinipur Assembly segment. The INDIA candidate from this constituency is the CPI’s Biplab Bhatta. The sitting MP of the Medinipur constituency is former state BJP chief Dilip Ghosh.

The Kanthi (Contai) and Tamluk seats in East Midnapore district are the bastions of the Adhikari family — all of whom have left the TMC to join the BJP. Since three-time Kanthi MP Sisir Adhikari — father of West Bengal Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari — won’t be fighting the polls due to old age (he is 82), his youngest son Soumendu Adhikari will contest it on a BJP ticket. He will face Uttam Barik of the TMC and Urbashi Bhattacharya of the Congress.

In Tamluk, Suvendu’s former seat, which his brother Dibyendu won in the 2016 bypolls and the 2019 Lok Sabha polls on a TMC ticket, the BJP has fielded controversial former Calcutta High Court judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay. He will face CPM’s Sayan Banerjee, an advocate, and Debangshu Bhattacharya of the TMC.

In the former Maoist hotbed of Jhargram, the switching of allegiance has been the other way round — the BJP’s Kunar Hembram, who won it in 2019, has since shifted to TMC. He is not the party’s candidate though; TMC has fielded Santhali playwright and author Kalipada Soren. Jhargram has in the past chosen CPM, TMC, as well as BJP. It will be interesting to see whom they choose this time.

In the neighbouring tribal constituency of Purulia, BJP’s Jyotirmoy Singh Mahato will fight to retain the seat, while challenging him will be state minister Santiram Mahato of the TMC. Completing the triangular contest will be former MLA and senior state Congress leader Nepal Mahato.

In Bankura, BJP’s Subhas Sarkar, a junior minister in the Modi Cabinet, will try to retain his seat, and so will party colleague Saumitra Khan in the other Bankura district constituency, Bishnupur.

DELHI

Constituencies going to polls: 7 of 7 (Chandni Chowk, North East Delhi, East Delhi, New Delhi, North West Delhi, West Delhi, South Delhi)

From the arrest and subsequent bail of Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal to Arvinder Singh Lovely’s resignation as the Delhi Congress chief and his switch to the BJP and from the political drama kicked up by AAP Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal’s claims of being beaten up at the CM’s residence to the assault on Congress’s Kanhaiya Kumar, there hasn’t been a dull moment in the national capital’s Lok Sabha poll campaign.

As the seven Lok Sabha constituencies of Delhi go to polls in the sixth phase, on test would be the BJP’s organisational might and the wobbly chemistry between bitter rivals-turned-allies, AAP and Congress.

The BJP, which has held all of Delhi’s Lok Sabha seats since 2014, took preventive measures to shield itself against anti-incumbency and the combined electoral strength of the INDIA partners by dropping six of its seven sitting MPs and fielding fresh faces instead. The arrest of Kejriwal in the Delhi liquor scam case — he is currently out on bail till June 1 to campaign for his party — and the subsequent public outrage against it had, however, perceptibly made things difficult for the BJP as the AAP and Congress jointly launched a spirited broadside against the saffron party alleging vindictive politics and misuse of probe agencies to target political rivals.

As the election campaign entered its final phase, the BJP got some ammunition to target the AAP and Congress after Swati Maliwal’s shocking claim that she was beaten up at Kejriwal’s official residence by the CM’s close aide, Bibhav Kumar. Whether the resultant controversy has damaged the electoral prospects of the INDIA partners is unclear but it has certainly infused fresh aggression in the BJP’s campaign just when it appeared to be faltering.

As for the AAP and the Congress, the allies were quick to recoup from the unexpected broadside launched mid-campaign by Lovely and some other jilted Congress leaders. Aware that the former rivals don’t make for natural allies, the top leaderships of both parties have invested much in ensuring that their workers on the grassroots work unitedly. The Congress, which is contesting three seats, however, remains a weak link considering that two of its candidates — Kanhaiya Kumar, who is pitted against the BJP’s incumbent MP Manoj Tiwari in North East Delhi, and Udit Raj, who is facing Yogendra Chandolia in North West Delhi — have continued to face resistance from senior Delhi Congress leaders.

In Chandni Chowk, Congress veteran JP Aggarwal is putting up a spirited fight against Praveen Khandelwal of the BJP while in the New Delhi constituency, AAP’s Somnath Bharti has kept BJP stalwart late Sushma Swaraj’s daughter Bansuri Swaraj engaged in a pitched contest. The AAP, which is yet to win a single Lok Sabha seat in Delhi despite winning the past two Delhi Assembly polls with an absolute majority, is also giving the BJP a tough contest in the West Delhi and East Delhi seats where its candidates Mahabal Mishra and Kuldeep Kumar are pitted against the BJP’s Kamaljeet Sehrawat and Harsh Malhotra, respectively.

ODISHA

Constituencies going to polls: 6 of 21 (Sambalpur, Keonjhar, Dhenkanal, Cuttack, Puri, Bhubaneswar)

Simultaneous polls will be held in the 43 Assembly segments under the six Lok Sabha constituencies.

In the sixth phase polls — and the state’s third — the constituencies going to polls in Odisha are a mixed bag of urban and rural-tribal areas. Interestingly, in the urban centres, several highly qualified professionals, technocrats, and highly educated contestants are in the fray, both in the Lok Sabha and the simultaneous Assembly elections, in which 43 segments will go to polls in this phase.

In the two major urban constituencies of Puri and Cuttack, BJD will be looking to retain its hold. In Puri, BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra will make a second attempt to bag the seat, which he lost to BJD veteran Pinaki Misra in 2019. Mishra, a four-term MP from Puri, however, has been dropped by the BJD this time, and Arup Patnaik has been fielded in his place. Patra also landed himself in the soup recently by saying “Lord Jagannath is a devotee of PM Narendra Modi”.

In Cuttack, BJD veteran Bhartruhari Mahtab dealt the party a body blow when the switched allegiances to the saffron party just before the polls. Mahtab, who has never lost Cuttack since 1998 on BJD tickets, will now contest the Cuttack seat for the BJP. He will face BJD’s Santrupt Misra and the Congress’s Suresh Mohapatra in the contest.

Former IAS officer Aparajita Sarangi will look to retain the Bhubaneswar seat for the BJP, while central minister and former Rajya Sabha MP Dharmendra Pradhan will try to win Sambalpur. Pradhan is a former Lok Sabha member too, winning the now-abolished Deogarh seat in 2014.

In Dhenkanal and the ST-reserved seat of Keonjhar, the BJD will look to retain its hold.

BIHAR

Constituencies going to polls: 8 of 40 (Valmiki Nagar, Paschim Champaran, Purvi Champaran, Sheohar, Vaishali, Gopalganj, Siwan, Maharajganj)

The sixth-phase elections in Bihar are a contest between the “Bahubalis” or strongmen of Bihar politics.

The election in Sheohar constituency is interesting because JDU candidate Lovely Anand, wife of Anand Mohan Singh, is contesting against Ritu Jaiswal, who is part of a prominent political family in Bihar. Anand Mohan Singh is facing several criminal cases, including charges of heinous crimes.

Similarly, RJD has given a ticket to Munna Shukla from Vaishali, another strongman of Bihar politics who is facing several charges.

The electoral contest in Siwan is also interesting because Hena Shahab, wife of Mohammad Sahabuddin, one of the biggest Bahubalis of Bihar, is contesting as an independent candidate.

JHARKHAND

Constituencies going to polls: 4 of 14 (Giridih, Dhanbad, Ranchi, Jamshedpur)

The election contest in Jharkhand is about retention for the BJP because it is trying to defend its position in the state.

In the seats going to polls in the sixth phase, the BJP-led NDA will try to retain the seats the alliance won in the 2019 polls.

JAMMU AND KASHMIR

Constituencies going to polls: 1 of 5 (Anantnag-Rajouri)

The election in Anantnag-Rajouri was scheduled to be held on May 7 but the voting day was changed to May 25 by the Election Commission following requests from the BJP (which is not contesting the seat) and its allies such as the Apni Party. The change of schedule triggered a political storm, with the National Conference, the PDP, and the Congress slamming the EC, expressing fears of possible rigging of votes to help the Apni Party candidate.

The constituency has undergone major changes since the delimitation exercise, as it now consists of a total of 18 Assembly segments — 11 of them from the largely Muslim-dominated Kashmir Valley and the remaining from the Poonch and Rajouri districts of the Jammu division which have a substantial chunk of Hindu and tribal voters. The constituency is set for a triangular contest between PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti, Mian Altaf of the National Conference and Apni Party’s Zafar Minhas.

Hoping to revive her political fortunes that have plummeted since she tied up with the BJP and was eventually hoodwinked by it before the abrogation of Article 370, Mufti hopes to wrest the seat she had previously won in 2014 and reboot her career.

The BJP, which has been claiming ad nauseam that Kashmir has witnessed unprecedented progress and calm since the abrogation of Article 370 has, curiously, stayed out of the electoral race in all three seats of the Kashmir division (the other two being Srinagar and Baramulla). Former J&K chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, who quit the Congress to form his own outfit — the Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP) — had initially declared that he would enter the poll fray from this constituency. Amid speculation that Azad was being propped up as a BJP proxy, the DPAP chief later announced that he would not be contesting the polls.

This, however, has not made the contest easy for either Mehbooba, who had previously been elected to the Lok Sabha from the pre-delimitation Anantnag seat twice — in 2004 and 2014 — or Altaf, a former five-term legislator and one of Kashmir’s most prominent Sufi clerics with huge sway over the Gujjar, Bakarwal, and Pahari communities

The constituency’s changed demographics and the Centre’s move to grant political reservations to the tribal communities while giving tribal status to the Paharis has made the electoral contest in Anantnag-Rajouri extremely complex. These changes have now given rise to two parallel and polarising narratives in the constituency — one of Jammu versus Kashmir and the other pitting Paharis against the Gujjars and Bakarwals.

Political observers, however, believe that Altaf, a widely respected leader equally popular among the Kashmiri Muslim, Pahari, Gujjar, and Bakarwal communities owing to his station, both as inheritor of the Naqshbandi Sufi order and a prominent political voice of the tribals, is set to register his debut Lok Sabha win against Mufti while Minhas would merely be a “vote cutter”.