Phase-5 of Lok Sabha election: Spotlight on Rajnath Singh, Smriti Irani, Rahul Gandhi, Omar Abdullah
New Delhi, May 19
Polling will be held on Monday in 49 seats across six states and two UTs in the fifth phase of the Lok Sabha poll that will decide the fate of several prominent leaders, including former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Union ministers Rajnath Singh and Smriti Irani and J&K ex-CM Omar Abdullah.
- Editorial: Phase V poll
Among the seats going to the polls, 13 are in Maharashtra, 14 in Uttar Pradesh, seven in West Bengal, five in Bihar, three in Jharkhand, five in Odisha, one in J&K and the lone seat in Ladakh. This round covers the least number of seats (49) in the seven-phase elections. It is another important phase for the BJP as over 40 of these seats were with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
On the eve of poling, the EC on Sunday pointed out that Mumbai, Thane and Lucknow had shown apathy towards voting in the past and asked city dwellers to turn out in higher numbers. The first four phases have registered a turnout of 66.95 per cent. Other prominent candidates include Union ministers Piyush
Goyal (Mumbai North, Maharashtra), Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti (Fatehpur, UP) and Shantanu Thakur (Bangaon, WB); 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).
Rahul, who has contested from Wayanad in Kerala, is also in the fight for Raebareli, a Nehru-Gandhi family pocket borough represented by his mother Sonia Gandhi since 2004. The BJP has fielded UP Minister Dinesh Pratap Singh. In Amethi, Irani, who had defeated Rahul in 2019, is seeking a second term, while KL Sharma, an aide of the Gandhi family, has been fielded by the Congress. Senior BJP leader Rajnath Singh is eyeing a fourth term from Lucknow. He is up against SP MLA from Lucknow Central Ravidas Mehrotra.
In the Faizabad Lok Sabha seat, which covers the temple town of Ayodhya, the electoral contest is mainly between sitting BJP MP Lallu Singh, who is seeking a hat-trick, and Awadhesh Prasad, the SP MLA from Milkipur (SC) Assembly constituency.
In Baramulla, besides Omar Abdullah, former separatist Sajad Lone, ex-MLA Sheikh Abdul Rashid alias ‘Engineer Rashid’, currently lodged in the Tihar jail, and the PDP’s former Rajya Sabha member Fayaz Ahmad Mir are among the 21 others contesting. In Ladakh, Congress candidate Tsering Namgyal, BJP’s Tashi Gyalson, and Independent candidate and NC rebel Haji Hanifa Jan are locked in a keen contest. About 8.95 crore people, including 4.26 crore female and 5,409 third gender, will cast their votes in the fifth phase. There are 7.81 lakh voters above 85 years, 24,792 above 100 years and 7.03 lakh voters with disabilities, who have been provided the option to vote from their homes. Polling for 23 states and union territories and 379 seats has been completed so far. The sixth and seventh phases are on May 25 and June 1. The counting of votes is on June 4. (With PTI inputs)
Youth casts ‘multiple votes’, EC takes note
After the Congress and Samajwadi Party posted a video of a youth in UP’s Farrukhabad purportedly casting multiple votes in favour of BJP candidate Mukesh Rajput, the Election Commission on Sunday said it had taken cognisance of the video and the authorities concerned had been told to take “prompt and effective action”.
