Dimple Yadav, Urmila, Kanhaiya: Key Candidates in Phase 4 Voting
71 constituencies, nine states, 943 candidates are in the fray in the fourth phase of the Lok Sabha polls.
Nine states, 72 constituencies and 943 candidates are in the fray as yet another phase of the Lok Sabha elections is underway.
Click here to follow LIVE updates on the 4th phase of the Lok Sabha elections.
Monday, 29 April, the fourth of seven phases of the general elections, will see some key candidates take the field – like Dimple Yadav, Priya Dutt, Urmila Matondkar, Moon Moon Sen, Kanhaiya Kumar, among others.
Click here to follow LIVE updates on the high-profile face-offs in Mumbai Lok Sabha polls.
Five parliamentary constituencies of Bihar, one constituency of Jammu and Kashmir, three in Jharkhand, six in Madhya Pradesh, 17 constituencies in Maharashtra and six in Odisha are voting on Monday, while 13 parliamentary constituencies each in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh and eight constituencies in West Bengal have also gone to polls.
Lok Sabha Elections – Phase 4: Bihar
In Bihar, all eyes will be on Begusarai, where CPI candidate Kanhaiya Kumar will fight a contest with BJP’s firebrand leader Giriraj Singh. The seat will see a three-way contest, with RJD's Tanveer Hasan also in the fray.
Begusarai is known as the 'Leningrad of Bihar', since it is a bastion for the Left Front.
In Samastipur, a poll battle will take place between the sitting Member of Parliament Ram Chandra Paswan of the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) and Ashok Kumar of the Congress.
Lok Sabha Elections – Phase 4: Madhya Pradesh
In Madhya Pradesh, Chhindwara, which is among the six seats going to the polls on Monday, will see Kamal Nath's son trying to maintain his winning streak. Nakul Kamal Nath has been fielded this time from the constituency which has been the chief minister's bastion.
With Kamal Nath not contesting this time, his son is banking on his father’s legacy to win the election. “I will take forward the development work of my father…,’’ Nakul Nath told a gathering on the campaign trail, reported Hindustan Times.
Interestingly, Nath is the richest candidate contesting in the fourth phase of the Lok Sabha elections, having declared assets worth Rs 600 crore.
Lok Sabha Elections – Phase 4: Uttar Pradesh
In Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur, a high profile battle will ensue, with the Congress fielding former Union minister Sriprakash Jaiswal from the seat.
Jaiswal will go up against BJP’s Satya Dev Pachauri, having dropped the sitting MP, Murli Manohar Joshi. The last time Pachauri had gone up against Jaiswal, he had been beaten.
Kanpur has largely been a Congress stronghold, with Jaiswal holding the seat from 1999 to 2014, but Pachauri is also from Kanpur, being the MLA from Govind Nagar constituency.
In the state’s Kannauj constituency, Akhilesh Yadav’s wife Dimple Yadav will go up against BJP’s Subrat Pathak. Yadav, who has been fielded by the Bahujan Samaj Party-Samajwadi Party combine, had won the seat in 2014, despite a ‘Modi wave’.
In Farrukhabad, Congress’ Salman Khurshid will be locking horns with BJP's sitting MP Mukesh Rajput and BSP's Manoj Agarwal in a three-way contest. Khurshid had won the seat in 2009, but lost to Rajput in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
Unnao, too, will see a three-way contest, with sitting MP Sakshi Maharaj contesting from BJP while Congress has fielded former MP Annu Tandon.
Lok Sabha Elections – Phase 4: Odisha
In Odisha, Kendrapara is arguably the seat which will see the most high profile battle, with BJP’s Baijayanta Panda facing off with BJD Rajya Sabha MP and Odia star Anubhav Mohanty.
Jay Panda is contesting as a part of the BJP for the first time, having crossed over recently. Panda was the Biju Janata Dal MP from 2009 till he resigned in 2018, but now Mohanty is batting from the party in what has been a BJD stronghold since 1998.
Lok Sabha Elections – Phase 4: Rajasthan
In Rajasthan, the electoral contest will see sons of top Congress leaders in the fray. Viabhav Gehlot, son of Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has been fielded from the Jodhpur constituency, taking on former BJP Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat in what could be a key political battle.
The senior Gehlot had represented Jodhpur five times before moving into the senior rungs of Rajasthan Congress, reported NDTV.
In the constituency of Barmer, Manvender Singh, son of former Union minister and BJP founding member Jaswant Singh will be fighting the battle on behalf of the Congress, against BJP’s Kailash Choudhry.
Singh was a member of BJP till he quit the party over differences with former Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje.
Barmer is usually seen as Jaswant Singh’s stronghold, but Manvender is hoping that support from Rajput, Dalit and Muslim voters will provide a win.
Lok Sabha Elections – Phase 4: West Bengal
West Bengal’s Asansol seat will see two stars facing off, with the BJP having fielded singer-turned politician Babul Supriyo, and the Trinamool Congress fielding actress-turned-politician Moon Moon Sen in the constituency.
Asansol is one of the only two constituencies that the BJP had managed to win in 2014 in the state.
In Bengal’s Krishnanagar, ex-investment banker Mahua Moitra is leading the charge from the TMC front as she fights her maiden Lok Sabha election. An MLA from Karimpur Assembly segment in the parliamentary constituency, Moitra was fielded from Krishnanagar after TMC denied a ticket to Tapas Paul, a two-time MP and actor-turned-politician, reported PTI.
Her main rivals are BJP's Kalyan Chaubey, a former Indian footballer, and CPI (M)'s Shantanu Jha, a professor of agri-sciences.
Lok Sabha Elections – Phase 4: Jammu & Kashmir
In Jammu and Kashmir’s Anantnag parliamentary constituency, where voting is taking place in three phases, Mehbooba Mufti is fighting a pitched battle against state Congress chief GA Mir and former judge of Jammu and Kashmir High Court Justice Hasnain Masoodi of the National Conference (NC).
This is her home turf and she currently holds the seat, having beaten Mirza Mehboob Beg of NC in 2014.
Lok Sabha Elections – Phase 4: Jharkhand
Former cricketer and three-term MP from Bihar’s Darbhanga Lok Sabha constituency Kirti Azad is a Congress candidate for Jharkhand’s Dhanbad seat this time. Azad, previously a BJP member, is the sitting MP in Darbhanga.
He was suspended from the BJP in 2015 for anti-party activities and has now joined Congress. However, Congress failed to secure the seat for him and he was given the seat from Dhanbad.
Lok Sabha Elections – Phase 4: Maharashtra
Mumbai will witness two key contests in the Mumbai North Central and Mumbai North West Lok Sabha constituencies.
In Mumbai North Central, the sitting Bharatiya Janata Party MP Poonam Mahajan will contest against the Congress' two-time former MP Priya Dutt.
Mahajan is the daughter of the late Union minister Pramod Mahajan and niece of the late Union minister Gopinath Munde, while Priya is daughter of the late Union minister Sunil Dutt. Dutt’s mother is Nargis, a former Rajya Sabha member.
Dutt has declared the highest income among all candidates, with Rs 13 crore as self-income in the last financial year, reported India Today.
Mumbai’s North West constituency will see a battle between two rivals – the Shiv Sena's Gajanan Kirtikar and Congress’ Sanjay Nirupam. A four-time MLA from Malad, Kirtikar is seeking to repeat his 2014 victory.
Nirupam had previously contested from the Mumbai North constituency, but lost to sitting BJP MP Gopal Shetty by a margin of nearly four lakh votes. This time, he is contesting from the North West seat.
Going up against Shetty this time from the Mumbai North seat is Congress’ Urmila Matondkar, who will be making her electoral debut.
In Mumbai South, Congress state chief Milind Deora will face-off against Shiv Sena’s Arvind Ganpat Sawant, who currently holds the constituency, having beaten Deora in 2014.
Also making his electoral debut this time is Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar’s grandson Parth Pawar, from the Maval constituency, which has been with the Shiv Sena for 10 years, reported Mumbai Mirror.
(With inputs from NDTV, Mumbai Mirror, Hindustan Times, Business Standard, PTI, India Today and Economic Times.)
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