Crowds gather during a rally in Varanasi
Apart from the high-stakes battle, the Varanasi constituency has achieved the distinction of having the highest number of candidates (42) in fray for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. It, however, has to share the honour with Chennai South which has an equal number of contestants.
BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, Aam Aadmi Party supremo Arvind Kejriwal, Congress candidate Ajay Rai, Vijay Prakash Jaiswal of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Kailash Chaurasiya of the Samajwadi Party are among the 42 candidates in contention in Varanasi which goes to polls in the last phase of the Lok Sabha elections tomorrow.
Polling in Chennai South was held on the sixth phase of elections on April 24. Those among the 42 aspirants were TKS Elangovan of the DMK, La Ganesan of the BJP, V Balaji of the BSP, SV Ramani of the Congress and J Jayavardhan of the AIADMK.
Incidentally, there were 43 contestants in the fray from the Chennai South seat during the 2009 polls. In 2004, there were 35 candidates who contested elections, the highest number both times for any Lok Sabha constituency in the country, according to Election Commission data.
Neighbouring Chennai North had 40 candidates in the fray this time.
The Raipur seat, which went to polls on April 24, had 36 contestants vying for top honours that included Ramesh Bais of the BJP, Guruji Virendra Kumar Dahariya of the BSP and Satya Narayan Sharma of the Congress.
In Amethi, where Rahul Gandhi is fighting for a third consecutive term, there were a total of 34 aspirants. Among other constituencies, Dhanbad had 31 candidates, Malkajgiri and Secunderabad 30 each and Muzaffarpur, Bathinda, and Lucknow, all having 29 contestants.