Lok Sabha phase-4 polling: Test of NDA’s spread of 56

NEW DELHI: Fourth phase of polling for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections on Monday is crucial for BJP as it will try to retain 45 of the 72 seats across nine states going to the polls. NDA partners Shiv Sena and LJP had won 11 of them in the last elections.

After the end of the fourth phase, polling would be completed in 373 of the 543 Lok Sabha seats. While this phase will mark the end of polling in Maharashtra and Odisha, the process will begin in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Jharkhand.

This phase is crucial for BJP as six seats of MP and 13 of Rajasthan go to the polls. It had lost the assembly elections in both these states a few months back to the Congress in a direct contest. Sons of Congress chief ministers of both the states are in the fray in this phase. MP CM Kamal Nath’s son Nakul is contesting from the family pocket borough Chhindwara. Nath won this seat seven times, including in 2014. Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot’s son Vaibhav is in the fray from Jodhpur against Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat.

Vasundhara Raje’s son Dushyant Singh is contesting from Jhalawar-Baran, a family stronghold, while Union minister PP Chaudhary is in the fray from Pali. Congress’ CP Joshi is candidate from Chittorgarh. BJP’s MP unit chief Rakesh Singh is fighting to retain his Jabalpur seat against Congress’ Vivek Thanka, a Rajya Sabha MP, who had lost to Singh in 2014. Veteran BJP leader Jaswant Singh’s son Manvendra (Congress) is contesting from Barmer, a seat he won in 2004 on a BJP ticket. He left BJP due to differences with Raje and is hopeful of winning again. BJP has fielded ex-MLA Kailash Choudhary against him.
UP’s 13 seats will go to the polls in this phase, including Kannauj. SP chief Akhilesh Yadav’s wife Dimple is a candidate from there. SP had also won Etawah (SC) in 2014. Congress is hopeful of winning Kanpur where its candidate SP Jaiswal is up against BJP’s Satyadev Pachauri. Salman Kursheed (Farrukhabad) and Annu Tandon (Unnao) are other prominent Congress nominees. Tandon is pitted against Sakshi Maharaj (BJP).

In Maharashtra, Mumbai seats will see some interesting contests : Poonam Mahajan (BJP) versus Priya Dut t (Congress) in Mumbai North Central, Gopal Shetty (BJP) versus Urmila Matondkar (Congress) in Mumbai North, Milind Deora (Congress) versus Arvind Sawant (BJP) in Mumbai South. Sharad Pawar’s nephew’s son Parth is the NCP nominee from Maval.

In Bihar, Union minister Giriraj Singh is contesting against ex-JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar (CPI) and Tanveer Hasan (RJD) from Begusarai. BJP state unit chief Nityanand Rai is in the fray again from Ujiarpur. In Odisha, Jay Panda who defected from BJD and is the BJP candidate from Kendrapara, is fighting a tough battle. Of the eight Bengal seats, Babul Supriyo is fighting to retain Asansol against Moon Moon Sen (Trinamool), while Darjeeling MP SS Ahluwalia (BJP) is the candidate from Bardhaman-Durgapur.