New Delhi [India], May 24 (ANI): Voting for the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha elections, which covers 58 seats across six States and two Union Territories (UTs), is set to decide the electoral fate of leaders from some of the high-profile constituencies, including Anantnag Rajouri, Puri and North East Delhi.
Of the 58 Lok Sabha seats, 14 are from Uttar Pradesh, 10 from Haryana, 8 each from West Bengal and Bihar, 7 from Delhi, 6 from Odisha, 4 from Jharkhand and one from Jammu and Kashmir.
The sixth phase will witness key contests in various constituencies.
The prominent candidates in the fray include two former Chief Ministers - Manohar Lal Khattar and Mehbooba Mufti. Khattar is contesting as the BJP candidate from Karnal and Mehbooba Mufti as the PDP nominee from Anantnag-Rajouri.
Some of the prominent candidates in the fray include Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra and former Union Minister Maneka Gandhi.
Bansuri Swaraj, Somnath Bharti, Manoj Tiwari, Kanhaiya Kumar, Dinesh Lal Yadav alias 'Nirahua', Dharmendra Yadav, Abhijit Gangopadhyay, Agnimitra Paul, Naveen Jindal, Raj Babbar, Deepender Singh Hooda, Kumari Selja and Aparajita Sarangia are among other prominent candidates in the fray.
Key candidates and constituencies in Phase 6 polls:
North-East Delhi
Congress has fielded former JNU Students' Union president Kanhaiya Kumar from North-East Delhi. He will face BJP's Manoj Tiwari who is eyeing his third term from the constituency. Tiwari defeated former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit from this constituency in the 2019 elections and is the only BJP MP in Delhi of all seven sitting MPs to get a chance to fight the Lok Sabha polls in the national capital this year.
New Delhi
Aam Aadmi Party has fielded Somnath Bharti to contest from the New Delhi seat. Bharti who represents Malviya Nagar Assembly in Delhi Vidhan Sabha will lock horns with the Bansuri Swaraj, who is the daughter of the late BJP stalwart Sushma Swaraj. Meenakshi Lekhi who is the Union Minister won this seat in 2019. She defeated Congress' Ajay Maken.
Anantnag Rajouri
PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti will contest against National Conference Mian Altaf Ahmad. This is the first election being held in the reconstituted Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha seat.
Mufti hit out at the central government and said that "atrocities" committed since 2019 are no longer be "acceptable" adding that the people will give the befitted answer to them via vote.
"In the first and the second phases of the polling, people voted in huge numbers. I am hopeful that people in South Kashmir will vote in even bigger numbers than North Kashmir. People want to give a message to the government in Delhi that the atrocities committed since 2019 are no longer acceptable and they will answer to it via vote," Mufti told reporters.
Puri
BJP has again reposed faith in the party's spokesperson Sambit Patra from Puri. Patra suffered defeat at the hands of Biju Janata Dal's Pinaki Misra in 2019 polls. He will face Jaya Narayan of Congress and BJD's Arup Patnaik this time. Patnaik, former Mumbai Police Commissioner, is contesting his second consecutive Lok Sabha election.
Karnal
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded Manohar Lal Khattar, a two-time Chief Minister of Haryana, as its candidate for the Karnal Lok Sabha seat. He will be contesting against Divyanshu Budhiraja from the Congress, Virender Maratha from the Sharad Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party, and Devendra Kadyan from the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP). This four-way battle makes the Karnal constituency a critical and closely watched contest in Haryana.
Sultanpur
BJP has fielded incumbent MP Maneka Gandhi who will face Samajwadi Party's Rambhual Nishad and BSP leader Udraj Verma. Since Independence, Sultanpur has seen MPs from several parties and no single party has had an outright dominance on the seat. Congress has won eight times in Sultanpur, while BSP has won twice and BJP has secured victory four times. In the 2019 general election, Maneka Gandhi from the BJP won the seat with a margin of 14,526 votes.
Tamluk
Former Calcutta High Court judge, Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay is contesting on BJP ticket from Tamluk. Gangopadhyay has been fielded against Trinamool Congress leader Debangshu Bhattacharya. Tamluk reflects a diverse demographic and remains a crucial constituency of West Bengal. In the 2019 Lok Sabha election TMC's Dibyendu Adhikari won from the Tamluk garnering 7,24,433 votes.
Rohtak
Congress has fielded Deepender Hooda from Rohtak and he will face BJP's Arvind Sharma. The previous election in 2019 saw Arvind Sharma narrowly defeat Deepender Singh Hooda by just 7,503 votes. Sharma secured 573,845 votes while Hooda received 566,342 votes. They are again pitted against each other, making the election on this seat interesting.
Bhubaneswar
The seat will witness a three-way contest among the sitting MP Aparajita Sarangi, Congress leader Yasir Nawaz and Biju Janata Dal leader Manmath Routray. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Aparajita Sarangi secured victory from this seat after facing a close contest from BJD's Arup Mohan Patnaik. Sarangi got 4,86,991 votes while Patnaik got 4,63,152 votes.
Azamgarh
Azamgarh is all set to face a repeat of the same contest, with the two Yadavs in the fray again fighting it out for this coveted seat of Uttar Pradesh. Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Bhojpuri actor Dinesh Lal Yadav 'Nirahua' and Samajwadi Party candidate Dharmendra Yadav. After Mainpuri and Kannauj, the Samajwadi Party had made Azamgarh as its bastion. Even SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav contested the election from here. Akhilesh too won the 2019 election, but the SP lost the bye-election to BJP when Dinesh Yadav won the election from here.
Kurukshetra
BJP has fielded Naveen Jindal who will face Sushil Gupta of the AAP and Indian National Lok Dal leader Abhay Singh Chautala. Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh registered victory from the Kurukshetra in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
The Election Commission has called upon voters to turn out in greater numbers at polling stations and vote with responsibility and pride. Voters of PCs in urban centres like Delhi, Gurgaon, and Faridabad are especially reminded about their right and duty to vote and break the trend of urban apathy.
Concerned CEOs and State machineries have been directed to take adequate measures to manage the adverse impact of hot weather or rainfall wherever predicted. Polling stations are ready to welcome the voters with ample shade, drinking water, ramps, toilets, and other basic facilities to ensure that polling takes place in a comfortable and secure environment. Polling parties have been dispatched along with machines and poll materials to their respective polling stations, the poll body said.
889 candidates are in the fray to contest elections across six states and two union territories going for polls in Phase 6 of Lok Sabha Elections 2024.
Lok Sabha polls is being held in seven phases across from April 19 to June 1. The counting of votes is on June 4. (ANI)
