Lok Sabha elections 2024: The stage is set for the fourth phase of polling of the Lok Sabha elections 2024 on Monday. 96 Lok Sabha constituencies across 10 states and Union Territories will vote in the fourth phase. Also, all 175 seats of the Legislative Assembly of Andhra Pradesh and 28 seats of the Odisha Assembly will simultaneously undergo polling.
Polling will be held on Monday in all 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana, all 25 seats in Andhra Pradesh, 13 in Uttar Pradesh, five in Bihar, four in Jharkhand, eight in Madhya Pradesh, 11 in Maharashtra, four in Odisha, eight in West Bengal and one in Jammu and Kashmir. Nearly 17.48 lakh electorate are eligible to vote in the election to the prestigious Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency and 24 candidates are in the fray. The BJP-led NDA has MPs from over 40 of these 96 seats that will go to polls on Monday.
Bigwigs in the electoral fray
The electoral fate of several prominent candidates like Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Union minister Giriraj Singh, TMC's firebrand leader Mohua Moitra and AIMIM's Asaduddin Owaisi will be decided in the fourth phase of the Lok Sabha elections. Among the keenly watched contests are those involving former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav (Kannauj, UP) and Union ministers Giriraj Singh (Begusarai, Bihar), Nityanand Rai (Ujiarpur, Bihar) and Raosaheb Danve (Jalna, Maharashtra).
Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and former cricketer Yusuf Pathan of TMC (both from Baharampur, WB), BJP's Pankaja Munde (Beed, Maharashtra), AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi (Hyderabad, Telangana) and Andhra Pradesh Congress president YS Sharmila (Kadapa) are among the prominent candidates. Union minister Ajay Kumar Mishra Teni, whose son is an accused in the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence case, is eyeing a hat-trick from Kheri (UP), while TMC's Mahua Moitra, who was expelled from Lok Sabha in the wake of cash-for-query allegations, is seeking re-election from Krishnanagar in West Bengal. Film star-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha is seeking re-election from Asansol where he is pitted against BJP's veteran leader S S Ahluwalia. BJP's former West Bengal president Dilip Ghosh and Trinamool Congress' Kirti Azad are contesting from Bardhaman-Durgapur.
Andhra Pradesh, Odisha Assembly elections
Voting will simultaneously be held in all 175 Assembly seats in Andhra Pradesh, which is witnessing a triangular contest involving ruling YSRC, the Congress-led INDIA bloc and the NDA, comprising the BJP, Chandrababu Naidu-led TDP and Pawan Kalyan-led Jana Sena Party (JSP). YSRCP president Jagan (Pulivendula), TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu (Kuppam) and Janasena chief and actor Pawan Kalyan (Pithapuram), among others, are in the Assembly poll race. AP Congress president and Jagan's sister YS Sharmila (Kadapa) and BJP state chief Purandeswari (Rajamahendravaram), among others, are in Lok Sabha poll fray. The YSRCP is contesting in all 175 Assembly seats and 25 Lok Sabha segments in the state. As part of a seat sharing deal among NDA partners, the TDP was allocated 144 Assembly and 17 Lok Sabha constituencies while the BJP will contest from six Lok Sabha and 10 Assembly seats.The Janasena will contest two Lok Sabha and 21 Assembly seats.
As many as 28 legislative assembly seats of Odisha are also going to polls in this phase.
First major election in Kashmir after abrogation of Article 370
It is the first major election in Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019. The National Conference has fielded influential Shia leader Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi while youth leader Waheed Para is contesting on the People's Democratic Party ticket. The Apni Party has fielded Ashraf Mir, while the BJP is not contesting.
No significant concern of heatwave
The EC believes that the heatwave conditions are one of the reasons for lower voter turnout in the last three phases as compared to the 2019 parliamentary polls. Citing an India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecast, the poll authority on Sunday said that "there is no significant concern regarding hot weather conditions for the polling in Phase 4."
The weather forecast indicates that the parliamentary constituencies going to polls are likely to experience normal to below normal temperatures and there will be no heatwave-like conditions in these areas on polling day. Keeping in mind the hot weather conditions and people's reluctance to step out in the afternoon, the Election Commission has increased poll timing in some Telangana seats. While the usual hours of voting are from 7 am to 6 pm, they are curtailed keeping in mind the terrain, time of sunset and security situation.
Poll issues echoed during campaigns
Issues like reservations, appeasement politics, corruption and jobs dominated the battle of narratives in the fourth phase of the Lok Sabha elections.
Bihar: Two Union ministers in fray
Five Lok Sabha seats in Bihar will go to polls on Monday, when 95 lakh voters will decide the electoral fate of 55 candidates, including two Union ministers. The seats going to polls are Begusarai, Ujiyarpur, Samastipur, Munger and Darbhanga. In Begusarai Lok Sabha seat, which has the largest electorate of 22 lakh among the five constituencies, Union minister Giriraj Singh's bid for a second consecutive term has been challenged by CPI's Awadhesh Rai. In 2019, Singh had defeated former JNU students' union president Kanhaiya Kumar, who was a CPI candidate, by a margin of over 4 lakh votes in the constituency. However, unlike last time, when it ploughed a lonely furrow, the CPI now has a truck with Congress and the mighty RJD, a combination that had paid rich dividends in assembly polls less than three years ago. In Ujiyarpur, which has the lowest number of voters at 17.48 lakh but the maximum number of 13 candidates, Union Minister of State for Home, Nityanand Rai, is aiming at a hat-trick. His main challenger is Alok Mehta, a senior RJD leader and former state minister who is the MLA from the eponymous assembly seat.
Maharashtra: Danve, Pankaja, Kolhe in race
Polling will be held in the 11 constituencies in Maharashtra where Union minister Raosaheb Danve, BJP leader Pankaja Munde and actor-turned-politician Amol Kolhe are among the prominent candidates. More than 2.28 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise to seal the fate of 298 candidates in the fourth phase of elections in the state. The 11 constituencies - Nandurbar, Jalgaon, Raver, Jalna, Aurangabad, Maval, Pune, Shirur, Ahmednagar, Shirdi and Beed - are spread across the central Marathwada as well as northern and western regions of the state. In the 11 constituencies covered in the fourth phase, there are 2,28,01,151 registered voters -- 1,18,59,645 men, 1,09,40,234 women and 1,272 third gender persons.
The BJP has renominated Union minister Danve from Jalna constituency and Sujay Vikhe Patil in Ahmednagar, and fielded former state minister Pankaja Munde from Beed. Actor Amol Kolhe is the NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) candidate from Shirur Lok Sabha seat in Pune district.
Fate of several star candidates to be decided in Bengal
Congress' Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, TMC's Shatrughan Sinha, Mahua Moitra and Yusuf Pathan, BJP's S S Ahluwalia and Dilip Ghosh will be among the candidates whose fates will be decided in the EVMs as eight Lok Sabha constituencies in West Bengal will go to the polls in the fourth phase. Spread over Murshidabad, Nadia, Purba Bardhaman, Paschim Bardhaman and Birbhum districts, the problems flagged by voters in these constituencies vary from migrant labour, drinking water supply and drying up of industries, while the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) notification is a bone of contention between the TMC and BJP in some places. Polling will be held in Baharampur, Krishnanagar, Ranaghat (SC), Bardhaman Purba (SC), Bardhaman-Durgapur, Asansol, Bolpur (SC) and Birbhum in West Bengal in the fourth round of the Lok Sabha polls. Film star-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha is seeking to get re-election from Asansol, pitted against BJP's veteran leader S S Ahluwalia. In Krishnanagar, the TMC has put up its outspoken leader Mahua Moitra, who was expelled from the 17th Lok Sabha last December, against BJP's Amrita Roy, a member of the Krishnanagar royal family.
UP gears up for fourth phase of polls
Voting for the fourth phase of the Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh covering 13 parliamentary constituencies will take place, with all eyes on the prestigious Kannauj seat from where SP president Akhilesh Yadav is seeking a re-election. Another prominent candidate in the fray in this round is Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra Teni, who is contesting from Kheri. Voting will take place in Shahjahanpur (SC), Kheri, Dhaurahra, Sitapur, Hardoi (SC), Misrikh (SC), Unnao, Farrukhabad, Etawah (SC), Kannauj, Kanpur, Akbarpur and Bahraich (SC). A total of 130 candidates are in the poll fray in this phase. Among the 13 poll-bound constituencies, Kannauj will see a contest between the SP chief and sitting BJP MP Subrat Pathak, while in Unnao, incumbent BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj (Swami Sachidanand Hari Sakshi) is pitted against SP's Annu Tandon (a former Lok Sabha MP from Unnao). Tandon had contested against Sakshi Maharaj as a Congress candidate in 2014 and 2019, but had lost on both occasions. She had won the Unnao Lok Sabha seat in 2009 on a Congress ticket.
(With PTI inputs)
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