New Delh: Campaigning for the Lok Sabha election ended yesterday across 11 states and one union territory where 179 million voters are eligible to decide the political fate of over 2,000 candidates in 117 seats.
This is the seventh round of the 10-phase polls across the subcontinental size country, which began April 7 and culminates on May 12. The results will be out on May 16, paving way for a new government.
Balloting will be held tomorrow for six seats in Assam, seven in Bihar, seven in Chhattisgarh, one in Jammu and Kashmir, four in Jharkhand, 10 in Madhya Pradesh, 19 in Maharashtra, five in Rajasthan, 39 in Tamil Nadu, 12 in Uttar Pradesh, six in West Bengal and one in Puducherry.
It will be third and final phase of voting in Assam, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.
A total electorate of 179,084,206 gets to vote across the length and breadth of the country — right from Jammu and Kashmir to Tamil Nadu and from Assam to Maharashtra.
The maximum 53,752,682 voters are in Tamil Nadu and the least 901,357 in Puducherry.
The fate of a total of 2,095 candidates across the country will be sealed in the Electronic Voting Machines during this round.
A maximum 846 nominees are in the fray in Tamil Nadu and just a dozen in Jammu and Kashmir’s only constituency Anantnag where opposition Peoples Democratic Party chief Mehbooba Mufti is locked in a bitter electoral battle with ruling National Conference candidate Mehboob Beg.
For the DMK, which too is going it alone this time, a good performance will help it grab national attention again.
The lone Puducherry seat too is witnessing a keen contest.
In Uttar Pradesh, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, who harbours prime ministerial ambitions, and daughter-in-law Dimple Yadav are both seeking re-election, respectively, from in Mainpuri and Kannauj cosntituencies.
The candidates in Rajasthan include India’s former cricket captain Mohammad Azharuddin, union ministers Namonarain Meena and Jitendra Singh of the Congress, former DGP Harish Meena and Mahant Chandnath of the BJP, and Kirodi Lal Meena of the National People’s Party.
In Assam, the main contestants are Ramen Deka and Bijoya Chakraborty (BJP), Manas Bora (Congress), Badaruddin Ajmal (All India United Democratic Front), Chandan Brahma (Bodoland People’s Front), Birendra Prasad Baishya (Asom Gana Parishad), and former Meghalaya governor R S Mooshahary (Trinamool Congress).
In Bihar where the voting has been staggered, balloting takes place in Kishanganj, Purnea, Araria, Katihar, Supaul, Bhagalpur and Banka — all of them having sizeable Muslim population.
In Kishanganj, Janata Dal-United (JD-U) candidate Akhtarul Iman declared he won’t contest, so the minority votes go en bloc to Congress’s Asrarul Haque.
Chhattisgarh’s political bigwigs in the poll fray include six-time BJP MP Ramesh Bais, Congress leader and union minister of state Charandas Mahant and Karuna Shukla, niece of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
IANS
