The fate of these stalwarts including Rajnath, Rahul and Smriti is at stake, voting on 49 Lok Sabha seats in the 5th phase.

New Delhi: Voting will be held for the fifth phase of elections on 49 Lok Sabha seats in six states and two union territories on Monday. Voting will also be held in this phase in two ‘high profile’ seats, Rae Bareli and Amethi, from where former Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Union Minister Smriti Irani are in the fray respectively. Apart from these, the electoral fate of Union Minister Rajnath Singh and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah will also be decided in this phase. More than 8.95 crore people, including 4.26 crore women and 5,409 ‘third gender’ voters, are eligible to vote in this round and 9.47 lakh polling officers have been deployed at 94,732 polling stations. On Monday, 13 in Maharashtra, 14 in Uttar Pradesh, Voting will be held on seven seats in West Bengal, five in Bihar, three in Jharkhand, five in Odisha and one seat each in Jammu-Kashmir and Ladakh. Of the seats on which voting will be held in the fifth phase, more than 40 seats were with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). On the eve of voting, the Election Commission on Sunday said voters in Mumbai, Thane and Lucknow have shown indifference towards voting in the past and appealed to the city residents there to vote in large numbers. A total of 66.95 percent voting has taken place so far in the last four phases.

Many Union Ministers among prominent candidates

Other prominent candidates in the fifth phase of Lok Sabha elections include several Union ministers including Rajnath Singh (Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh), Piyush Goyal (Mumbai North, Maharashtra), Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti (Fatehpur, UP) and Shantanu Thakur (Bangaon, West Bengal ), LJP (Ram Vilas) leader Chirag Paswan (Hajipur, Bihar), Shiv Sena’s Shrikant Shinde (Kalyan, Maharashtra) and BJP’s Rajiv Pratap Rudy and RJD president Lalu Prasad’s daughter Rohini Acharya (both Saran, Bihar). Voting will also be held in 35 assembly constituencies of Odisha, where BJD president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is among the candidates. Voting will be held in 13 Lok Sabha constituencies of North Maharashtra and Mumbai Metropolitan Region. 2.46 crore citizens are eligible to vote in this phase to decide the electoral fate of 264 candidates.

These veterans are in the electoral fray in Maharashtra

Union ministers and BJP leaders Piyush Goyal (Mumbai North), Bharti Pawar (Dindori) and Kapil Patil (Bhiwandi), Shiv Sena’s Shrikant Shinde (Kalyan), and Mumbai Congress chief Varsha Gaikwad and BJP candidate and lawyer Ujjwal Nikam (Mumbai North Central seat). ) are among the leading candidates in this round. Apart from these, voting will also be held in Dhule, Nashik, Thane, Palghar, Mumbai North West, Mumbai North East, Mumbai South Central and Mumbai South. Rahul Gandhi, who is contesting from Wayanad in Kerala, is contesting from Rae Bareli, the stronghold of the Nehru-Gandhi family, which his mother Sonia Gandhi had represented since 2004. BJP has fielded Uttar Pradesh minister Dinesh Pratap Singh from this seat. Union Minister Smriti Irani is in the fray in Amethi, while Congress has fielded KL Sharma, close to the Gandhi family. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Irani defeated Rahul Gandhi in Amethi. Defense Minister Rajnath Singh is eyeing a fourth term from Lucknow. He is contesting against SP’s sitting MLA (from Lucknow Central) Ravidas Mehrotra.

Voting on 14 seats in UP

In this phase in Uttar Pradesh, 14 Lok Sabha constituencies are Mohanlalganj (reserved), Lucknow, Rae Bareli, Amethi, Jalaun (reserved), Jhansi, Hamirpur, Banda, Fatehpur, Kaushambi (reserved), Barabanki (reserved), Faizabad, Kaiserganj, Gonda. There will be voting. Other prominent candidates in the fifth phase are Union Minister Kaushal Kishore-Mohanlalganj, Union Minister Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma-Jalaun, Union Minister Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti and MP Lallu Singh-Faizabad Lok Sabha seat. 22 candidates are in the fray in Baramulla, Jammu and Kashmir. Former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah is also contesting from this seat. 17.37 lakh voters are eligible to vote in this constituency. In Ladakh, there is a tough contest between Congress candidate Tsering Namgyal, BJP’s Tashi Gyalson and independent candidate and NC rebel leader Haji Hanifa Jaan.

• Voting will be held in seven parliamentary constituencies in West Bengal. Voting will be held in Bangaon, Barrackpore, Howrah, Uluberia, Serampore, Hooghly and Arambag Lok Sabha seats of the state.
• In Barrackpore, BJP candidate Arjun Singh is contesting against Trinamool Congress’s Partha Bhowmik and Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M)’s Debdoot Ghosh.
• Star campaigners including Prime Minister Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee and her nephew and party general secretary Abhishek Banerjee have held rallies for their respective party candidates.
• Voting will also be held in five Lok Sabha seats of Bihar, Saran, Muzaffarpur, Hajipur, Sitamarhi and Madhubani on Monday.
• On behalf of NDA, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held rallies in Hajipur, Saran and Muzaffarpur. Chirag Paswan is contesting from Hajipur, while Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidates are contesting on the remaining two seats.
• In Saran, former Union Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy is contesting from Rohini Acharya, daughter of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) President Lalu Prasad. Defense Minister Rajnath Singh and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath have campaigned in favor of Rudy.
• Voting will be held for the by-elections of three Lok Sabha seats and Gandey Assembly seat in Jharkhand.
• In the fifth phase of Lok Sabha elections, 22 candidates are contesting from Chatra, 15 from Koderma and 17 from Hazaribagh constituency.