The campaigning for Phase 4 of Lok Sabha elections which will see voting on 96 constituencies, ended on Saturday. A total of 1,717 candidates from 10 States/UTs will contest elections in this phase.
The Election Commission of India informed that a total of 4,264 nominations were filed for 96 parliamentary constituencies across. The poll body further stated that the maximum number of nomination forms were received from Telangana (1488) followed by Andhra Pradesh with 1103 nominations from 25 constituencies.
ECI further mentioned that the average number of contesting candidates in a parliamentary constituency for the fourth phase is 18.
The last date for filing nominations for phase 4 for all 10 States/UTs was April 25, 2024.
Key Constituencies in Phase 4
Baharampur
The Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) are the main parties that are in a fierce contest in Baharampur. Yusuf Pathan will contest against Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, president of the West Bengal unit of Congress, and the BJP's candidate, Dr Nirmal Kumar Saha.
West Bengal Congress President Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury is the current sitting Member of Parliament from Baharampur. Chowdhury has been a strong and influential leader in Baharampur, having secured victory for the Congress party in three consecutive terms from 2009 to 2019.
Hyderabad
Hyderabad is bracing itself for the big showdown between Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Madhavi Latha and sitting All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen MP Asaduddin Owaisi for the Lok Sabha election. AIMIM chief is popular in the constituency and has been campaigning from door-to-door, seeking a fifth term in the constituency. He has also raised the issue of political representation and minority rights.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections, Asaduddin Owaisi from AIMIM won the seat with a margin of 282,186 votes. Asaduddin Owaisi polled 517,471 votes with a vote share of 58.9 per cent and defeated Dr. Bhagavanth Rao from the BJP, who got 235,285 votes (26.80 per cent).
Krishnanagar
Trinamool Congress' (TMC) leader Mahua Moitra will face the BJP's Amrita Roy.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, TMC's Mahua Moitra won the seat with 614,872 votes, defeating BJP leader Kalyan Chaubey who secured 551,654 votes. CPI(M)s Dr Shantanu Jha received 120,222 votes. Mahua Moitra was recently expelled from the Lok Sabha.
Begusarai
BJP leader Giriraj Singh is pitted against CPI candidate Awadhesh Rai in the Lok Sabha polls.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP's Giriraj Singh defeated Kanhaiya Kumar who contested on a CPI ticket. Singh got 692,193 votes with 56.48 per cent, while Kumar got 269,976 votes with 22.03 per cent votes.
Munger
Janata Dal (United) leader Rajiv Ranjan Singh (Lalan Singh) will face RJD leader Anita Devi.
In the 2019 elections, Lalan Singh of JD (U) emerged victorious in Munger with a margin of over 1.67 lakh votes, defeating RJD's Neelam Devi, who is the wife of Anant Singh.
Srinagar
National Conference has fielded Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi, who will face PDP's Waheed Parra from this seat. Apni Party has fielded Mohammad Ashraf Mir. The seat is currently held by National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah.
Asansol
The ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) in West Bengal has chosen to wield the star power of Shatrughan Sinha against Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Surinderjeet Singh Ahluwalia from Asansol which will go to polls on Monday.
The Bihari Babu of the Indian film industry, Shatrughan Sinha joined TMC in 2022 after a brief stint in the Congress. Sinha quit the BJP in 2019 claiming that the party has become a "one-man show".
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Babul Supriyo, a popular singer, who was then with the BJP, won the Asansol Lok Sabha seat. However, the seat fell vacant when Supriyo joined the TMC. Sinha, who was fielded by the TMC in the by-polls, won the election, winning 56.62 per cent of the polls.
Kannauj
Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav will face incumbent MP and BJP leader Subrat Pathak.
Akhilesh Yadav served as Lok Sabha MP from 2000-2012. He resigned from the Kannauj parliamentary seat in 2012 after he became the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.
Kadapa
Andhra Pradesh Congress chief YS Sharmila will face sitting MP Avinash Reddy. Sharmila is the cousin of two time sitting MP Avinash Reddy.
Khunti
One of the most high-profile constituencies in Jharkhand, and a BJP's stronghold too, will witness a contest between the BJP's Arjun Munda and the Congress' Kali Charan Munda as its candidate. Arjun Munda is the sitting MP from this seat.
Andhra Pradesh will witness polling for the 25 Lok Sabha constituencies and 175 assembly seats simultaneously on May 13.
The ruling YSR Congress Party, National Democratic Alliance (NDA), and Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc will be in a triangular contest in the polls.
In Andhra Pradesh, NDA comprises the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), former Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu's Telugu Desam Party (TDP), and Pawan Kalyan's Jana Sena Party.
The TDP will contest 17 seats in the state. While the BJP will contest 6 constituencies, the JSP will contest two seats, as per the seat-sharing arrangement for the Lok Sabha polls.
In the previous general elections, the YSRCP bagged 22 out of 25 seats in the state and the TDP was reduced to only 3 seats. Congress and the BJP failed to win any seats in the southern state.
As part of a seat-sharing deal reached between the NDA partners, the TDP will contest 144 Assembly and 17 Lok Sabha constituencies in Andhra, while the BJP will put up candidates in 6 Lok Sabha and 10 Assembly constituencies. The Jana Sena will contest two Lok Sabha and 21 Assembly seats.
On preparations for the polling in Telangana, Chief Electoral Officer Vikas Raj said, "The silence period has started in 13 segments, where the polling will be held on May 13, from 7 am to 4 pm. We are ready. Our distribution centres will start sending the material and polling personnel tomorrow morning. The police personnel have arrived. Our EVMs are ready. We are confident that we will be able to conduct free, fair and peaceful elections."
Voting for all 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana will take place in a single phase on May 13.
In this phase, Prime Minister continued attacking opposition parties on the reservation issue, saying that INDIA bloc will snatch away rights of reservation rights of ST, SC and OBC community.
PM Modi, while addressing a public rally in Madhya Pradesh's Dhar, took a dig at Lalu Prasad Yadav saying a "fodder scam accused" leader who is out on bail is advocating reservation for Muslims.
"Congress is silent but today one of its allies confirmed the intentions of the INDI alliance. Their leader who is in jail in connection with the fodder scam and has been punished by the court...He has just come out on bail...He said that Muslims should get reservation and not just reservation, he says that Muslims should get complete reservations. What does this mean? These people want to snatch away all the reservation that SC, ST and OBC communities have and give complete reservation to Muslims," PM Modi said.
The Prime Minister also predicted a clean sweep for the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Andhra Pradesh.
PM said that he never considered Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy as an 'ally'.In an interview with NTV, a Telugu news channel, PM Modi said the incumbent YSRCP regime in the state led by Jagan wouldn't be voted back in the state elections.
"I don't believe that the present government in Andhra Pradesh will be voted back. The state's economy is in dire straits presently. We never considered Jagan as a potential ally. However, their (YSRCP's) members did support us in certain issues in Parliament," PM Modi said.
In a veiled dig at Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that people in the state have to take the burden of double 'R' tax."Since the time the Congress has come to power in Telangana, there has been discussion on double 'R' tax. One 'R' is for Telangana, and the other is for Delhi. Both of them together have made Hyderabad and Telangana into an ATM..."
PM Modi said that people in the city have to bear the burden of "razakar" tax as well."Here in Hyderabad, you have to take the burden of triple R tax. Here one R is for Razakars. How this Razakar tax functions is visible in Old Hyderabad. The supporter of Congress and BRS and Majlis MP who has been in power for a long time, has not even given basic facilities to people," PM Modi said.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday while addressing a public rally in Telangana's Bhongir, claimed that if BJP comes to power, it will increase the reservation of SC, ST, and OBC and will end the Muslim reservation.
While appealing to the public, Amit Shah said, "Congress wants to fight elections by speaking lies. They say that if Prime Minister Narendra Modi comes, he will finish the reservation. Prime Minister Modi has been leading this country unanimously for the last 10 years, but he did not end the reservation. However, the Congress party has robbed the reservations of SC, ST and OBC by giving 4 per cent reservation to Muslims."
In Odisha, Prime Minister targetted Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and challenged him to name the districts of Odisha and their respective capitals without seeing them on paper and said that Odisha's development remains stunted as the state government doesn't trust the people's capabilities.
"I want to challenge 'Naveen Babu' as he has been the CM for such a long, ask 'Naveen Babu' to name the districts of Odisha and their respective capitals without seeing them on paper. If the CM cannot name the districts of the state, will he know your pain?" the Prime Minister said earlier today in Kandhamal.
Targeting opposition parties in the Jharkhand cash haul, the Prime Minister said, "You saw how mountains of notes were being found from JMM and Congress camps. Even machines had to be brought from banks to count the notes."
"JMM and Congress have only one agenda: neither will they work nor will they let others work and there will be no work without money. This is their game. They themselves do nothing except commit corruption and are busy stopping the work done by Modi," he added.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday fired back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's criticism regarding the "silence" surrounding Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani, asking the Centre to send the CBI and ED to investigate the matter at the homes of the two business tycoons.
Taking a jibe at PM Modi, the Wayanad MP asked if it is his "personal experience" of receiving money in a 'tempo'.
"Namaskar, Modi ji! Did you get scared? Usually, you talk about Ambani ji, Adani ji only behind closed doors. The first time, you said Ambani-Adani in public. And you even know they give money in a tempo. Is it your personal experience? Do one thing, send CBI-ED to their residence and conduct an enquiry. Don't be scared," Rahul Gandhi said in a video message on Wednesday.
This comes after Prime Minister Modi launched a strong attack on the Congress and Rahul Gandhi, questioning their 'silence' on Ambani-Adani, and asking if there is a 'deal' between them. PM Modi also asked if the Congress party has received a "tempo filled with currency notes" from the two businessmen.
Of the 96 Lok Sabha seats, 25 are from Andhra Pradesh, 17 from Telangana, 13 from Uttar Pradesh, 11 from Maharashtra, eight each from Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal, five from Bihar, four each from Jharkhand and Odisha and one from Jammu and Kashmir.
Lok Sabha elections are being held in seven phases till June 1. Polling for three phases has already been concluded. Votes will be counted on June 4.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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