LS polls 2014: Voting for 121 seats today, Jaswant, Shinde, Nilekani, Deve Gowda's fate at stake

New Delhi: The most important phase of 16th Lok Sabha elections gets under way today with polling to take place for 121 seats across 12 states of India. Prominent among the 1,769 candidates whose political fate are at stake include expelled BJP leader Jaswant Singh, former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, Petroleum Minister Veerappa Moily, BJP leader Maneka Gandhi, former Infosys head honcho Nandan Nilekani, and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar's daughter Supriya Sule. A total of 16.61 crore voters will be eligible to vote today. Polling will take place in 28 seats in Karnataka, followed by Rajasthan (20), Maharashtra (19), Uttar Pradesh and Odisha (11 each), Madhya Pradesh (10), Bihar (7), Jharkhand (6), West Bengal (4), Chhattisgarh (3), Jammu and Kashmir and Manipur (1 each).Mumbai: Voters in 19 constituencies will go to vote today to decide the fate of 358 candidates including Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan, Supriya Sule and BJP leader Gopinath Munde. The generation next of Maharashtra politics- Supriya Sule (Baramati) and Nilesh Rane (Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg)- are seeking their second term. Indian Youth Congress chief Rajiv Satav, who is currently a legislator, is making a debut in electoral politics from Hingoli.Vishwajit Kadam, who is the state Youth Congress chief and son of Congress veteran Patangrao Kadam, is also making a foray from Pune.While Shinde is contesting from Solapur, Chavan, who had to quit three years ago over the alleged involvement in the Adarsh Housing scam, is the Congress candidate from his home turf of Nanded. BJP's Munde is seeking a second term as MP from Beed. Jaipur: Voting will take place today for 20 out of 25 seats in Rajasthan where 239 contestants are in fray, including 13 sitting MPs and expelled BJP leader Jaswant Singh.BJP and Congress parties have fielded twenty candidates each, AAP 19, BSP 18, CPM and CPI three each and NCP one. The candidates also include 88 Independents.Congress and BJP are in a direct fight on 12 seats which include Jaipur, Ajmer, Banswara, Bhilwara, Bikaner, Jhalawar, Chittorgarh, Jodhpur, Pali, Rajsamand, Udaipur and Kota.A triangular contest could be witnessed in Barmer, Churu, Jhunjhunu, Ganganangar, Jalore, Nagaur, Sikar, with Congress and BJP candidates facing challenge from rebels candidates, BSP, Rajasthan Loktantrik Party (a joint front of five national parties), AAP or Independents.Barmer is in limelight with rebel BJP leader Jaswant Singh entering the contest as an Independent against BJP's Colonel Sona Ram and Congress' sitting MP Harish Choudhary.Ram was earlier with Congress. Jaswant had raised the banner of revolt after he was denied ticket and was expelled from BJP.Congress nominee C P Joshi is pitted against the Olympic medal winner Rajyvardhan Singh Rathore from Jaipur-rural seat. Joshi is a sitting MP from Bhilwara.PCC president and Union Minister Sachin Pilot, who is contesting from Ajmer, would be facing a tough battle against BJP Minister Sanwarlal Jat. BJP had won all the seats under this parliamentary constituency in the Assembly polls in December last.In Jhalawar, Dushyant Singh, son of Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and a sitting MP, is pitted against Congress' Pramod Jain Bhaya. There are 17 women contestants including Congress' sitting MPs Chandresh Kumari from Jodhpur, Girija Vyas from Chittorgarh and Jyoti Mirdha from Nagaur and new entrants Rajbala Ola from Jhunjhunu, Resham Valviya from Banswara and BJP's Santosh Ahlawat from Jhunjhunu seats.Bhubaneswar: Over 1.55 crore voters are expected to exercise their franchise in the second and last phase of simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly election in Odisha involving 11 Parliamentary and 77 Assembly constituencies.The 98 candidates include Congress stalwart and Union minister Srikant Jena and former Union minister Arjun Sethi of the BJD, are in fray for Jajpur, Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar, Balasore, Bhadrak, Dhenkanal, Cuttack, Kendrapara, Puri, Jagatsinghpur and Bhubaneswar Lok Sabha constituencies.A host of MPs including Tathagat Satpathy, Baijayant Panda, Pinaki Mishra, Bhatruhari Mahtab (all BJD) are also seeking re-election to Lok Sabha. Among 747 candidates in the Assembly election are a host of high-profile leaders and state ministers like Maheshwar Mohanty, Pratap Keshari Deb, Badri Narayan Patra, Bijoyshree Routray and Damodar Rout.Candidates of AAP, Odisha Janmorcha (OJM), Ama Odisha Party, Samata Kranti Dal, BSP, JMM and Trinamool Congress are also fighting the Assembly election.Patna: Seven Lok Sabha constituencies go to the poll in Bihar today in the second of the six-phase election, for which security has been stepped up as many of the seats fall in the Maoist belt. An electorate of 11,85,07,86 is expected to decide the fate of 117 candidates in Patna Sahib, Patliputra, Nalanda, Jehanabad, Munger, Ara and Buxar Lok Sabha constituencies.Prominent among the candidates are actor-politician Shatrughan Sinha, former Home Secretary R K Singh, Lalu Prasad's eldest daughter Misa Bharti and her two uncles Ramkripal Yadav and Ranjan Yadav.Ranchi: Six constituencies will go to the polls today in second of the three-phased Lok Sabha election in Jharkhand. The six seats are Giridih, Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Singhbhum (ST), Khunti (ST) and Hazaribagh. Jharkhand has 14 Lok Sabha seats.Among 106 candidates, prominent are Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker Karia Munda of BJP, Jayant Sinha, son of Jaswant Sinha, former Team India Manager Amitabh Chowdhury of JVM(P), former deputy chief minister, Suresh Mahato of Ajsu party and former Union minister Subodh Kant Sahay of Congress.Imphal: Manipur will hold the second and last phase of Lok Sabha election today in the Inner Manipur constituency, where eight candidates are in the fray.The Congress has held the prestigious seat for 10 years. Among the candidates are sitting Congress MP Th Meinya, former Manipur University Professor R K Ranjan (BJP), former Manipur Rifles commandant S Manaobi (Trinamool Congress), senior CPI leader M Nara and the lone woman candidate O Indira (Independent).Bangalore: Karnataka will go to the polls today in a single phase with the battlelines clearly delineated for a bipolar contest between the ruling Congress and BJP in all but six of the 28 Lok Sabha constituencies.Both principal players see tidings in their favour. After a heartbreak defeat in the May Assembly polls last year, BJP is gung ho about a comeback, while the Congress is portraying a picture of confidence of bagging 20 seats.In the 2009 polls, BJP then holding the reins of power had pulled off a stellar performance winning 19 seats, leaving six to Congress and three to JDS led by former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda.It is a reversal of this trend Congress is targeting to maximise gains, when a total of 4.62 crore voters are expected to make their choice from among 435 candidates.Congress is hoping to replicate its Assembly performance when it swept to power winning 122 of the 224 seats, dethroning the first-ever BJP government in the South. Pushed to the third place, BJP is looking for a turnaround in its fortunes.The fight between Congress and BJP is direct in at least 22 constituencies with many imponderables and triangular in the rest where the JDS is in the reckoning.Among the battles, the most keenly watched is Bangalore South constituency where Nandan Nilekani, face of UPA's marquee programme Aadhar and billionaire co-founder of Infosys is fighting BJP's formidable opponent Ananth Kumar, a five-time MP.Nilekani with his and wife's declared wealth of Rs 7,700 crore is the richest among the candidates who have entered the fray so far in the country.Politically highly conscious, middle and lower middle class dominated Bangalore South has never been receptive to Congress since the late 1970s, barring once in 1989.The spotlight is also on former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, who is seeking to enter Parliament in his second bid after failing in the first, from Shimoga where is he is facing Githa Shivarajkumar, daughter of former Chief Minister S Bangarappa.Other keenly watched contests are Gowda (Hassan), Union Minister M Veerappa Moily (Chikkaballapur), H D Kumaraswamy (Chikkaballapur), N Dharam Singh (Bidar) and D V Sadananda Gowda (Bangalore North), all former Chief Ministers.Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is also seeking to gain a toehold, fielding candidates for all constituencies, the prominent being former Infosys Director Balakrishnan who is in the fray from Bangalore Central.Chief Minister Siddarmaiah is playing for high stakes as the outcome could have a bearing on his political standing within the party with a good show being a deterrent against any move to threaten his seat. He has borne the brunt of campaign burden criss-crossing the state.BJP expects that the return of Yeddyurappa would bring significant gains as he could consolidate the votes of Lingayats, numerically No 1 community. Despite opposition by BJP senior leader Sushma Swaraj, B Sriramulu was also brought into the party, which hopes for incremental electoral value with his influence in Valmiki community.The party is also heavily banking on the Modi factor to tilt the scales in its favour, particularly among young voters. Seeing a fertile electoral ground in Karnataka, Modi campaigned vigorously addressing 10 rallies seeking to give a cutting edge to the party.Congress, on one hand, believes people have still not forgotten or forgiven BJP for its “misdeeds” and would make it pay in the Lok Sabha polls too. On the other, it is touting its welfare schemes like rice for Re 1 a kg for the poor.It has broadly been a steady rise for BJP in Karnataka, the ground for which was laid in 1991 when it won four Lok Sabha seats with a dramatic ascent to 18 in 2004 and to 19 in 2009.