New Delhi: Polling will be held on Monday for the fourth phase of Lok Sabha election in 72 parliamentary constituencies spread across nine states.
The stakes are high for the ruling BJP and its allies as it had swept 56 of these seats in 2014, leaving just two for the Congress and the rest for other opposition parties such as the Trinamool Congress (six) and the Biju Janata Dal (six).
Voting will take place in 17 seats in Maharashtra, 13 each in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, eight in West Bengal, six each in Madhya Pradesh and Odisha, five in Bihar, three in Jharkhand and a part of the Anantnag constituency in Jammu and Kashmir.
In Maharashtra, where election will come to end with this phase, the opposition, Congress is facing a tough task of reclaiming its lost base in north Maharashtra and Mumbai, while the NCP is trying to get a foothold in Thane and Western Maharashtra. The BJP and its ally Shiv Sena had won all 17 seats in 2014.
In Rajasthan, where the BJP had won all the seats in 2014, the Congress appeared to make a comeback, forming the government in the state with a narrow majority after last year’s Assembly polls.
In Uttar Pradesh, most of these 13 seats are seeing a direct fight between the BJP and SP-BSP alliance. In 2014, the BJP won 12 of these 13 seats in the state.
Only Kannauj, won by the Samajwadi Party, defied the Modi wave that year among them.
In West Bengal, all the eight seats, which are spread across four districts, will see a four-cornered contest between Trinamool Congress, BJP, Congress and the Left Front.
In Bihar, the BJP and its allies are looking to retain all the five seats in the face of a spirited fight put up by the RJD-Congress alliance. The cynosure of all eyes in this phase, however, is the Begusarai seat which will witness an electrifying contest between the political Left and the Right with CPI debutant Kanhaiya Kumar taking on firebrand BJP leader Giriraj Singh.
The Lok Sabha polls in Anantnag constituency including Anantnag, Kulgam, Shopian and Pulwama are being held in three phases due to security reasons.
EC ‘silent spectator’,
says Chidambaram
Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Sunday, accused the Election Commission of being ‘silent spectator’ to the ‘excesses’ of the BJP and to the utterances of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying the poll body has “largely failed” the people of India.
The former Union Finance and Union Home Minister also said the plank of nationalism, propagated by the BJP, is a ploy to hide ‘failures’ of the NDA government.
“According to me, the Election Commission has largely failed the people of India. It has been a silent spectator to the excesses of the BJP, Mr Modi’s utterances and the enormous amount of money that has been spent by the BJP,” he told PTI in an interview.
Recently, the opposition has complained to the EC alleging that the PM had “brazenly” violated the poll code by invoking armed forces repeatedly during his poll rallies and demanded that a campaign ban be imposed on him for some time.
Chidambaram claimed that the EC has been asking accounts of every opposition candidate and even on their small spendings like on a flag.
“They (EC) are adding what it is called notional expenditure, to the expenditure account of the candidates. If you apply the same standard, every BJP candidate will be disqualified,” he said.
Chidambaram said there is a “reality” that all non-BJP parties like the SP, BSP and Trinamool Congress will join hands with the Congress to form a stable government.
“I am very confident that the SP, BSP and the TMC, which are now contesting separately, will join hands with the Congress and other UPA parties,” Chidambaram said. (PTI)