New Delhi. In the sixth phase of Lok Sabha elections, campaigning for 58 seats in six states and two union territories, including all seven seats in Delhi, ended on Thursday. Apart from the national capital, voting will be held on 14 seats in Uttar Pradesh, 10 in Haryana, eight each in Bihar and West Bengal, six in Odisha, four in Jharkhand and one in Jammu and Kashmir.
So far, polling has been completed in 25 states and union territories and 428 out of 543 seats. The final phase of polling is scheduled for June 1 and counting will be held on June 4. Prominent candidates in the sixth phase include Dharmendra Pradhan (BJP) from Sambalpur (Odisha), Manoj Tiwari (BJP) and Kanhaiya Kumar (Congress) from North East Delhi, Maneka Gandhi (BJP) from Sultanpur (Uttar Pradesh), Mehbooba Mufti (PDP) from Anantnag-Rajouri (Jammu and Kashmir), Abhijit Gangopadhyay (BJP) from Tamluk (West Bengal), Manohar Lal Khattar from Karnal, Naveen Jindal from Kurukshetra and Rao Inderjit Singh from Gurugram seat. On the last day of campaigning, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held one rally each in Punjab and Haryana.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a dig at the ‘India’ alliance and said that even before the cow gives milk, a fight has started among its constituent parties over ‘ghee’. Modi reiterated that as long as he is alive, no one can take away the reservation of Dalits and tribals. A day earlier, the Calcutta High Court had declared the OBC status given to several sections in West Bengal since 2010 as illegal, referring to which Modi targeted the ‘India’ alliance and said that the alliance’s ‘obsession with appeasement’ has crossed every border. Has crossed.
Addressing an election rally here on Wednesday, Modi had said, “Today itself, the Calcutta High Court has given a big slap to the ‘Indi’ alliance. The court has canceled all OBC certificates issued since 2010. Why? Because the West Bengal government issued unwanted OBC certificates to Muslims just for the sake of vote bank.” Modi addressed two rallies in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) campaign in Delhi. Apart from Modi, Union ministers Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Smriti Irani and Piyush Goyal also took up the responsibility of campaigning for the party candidates. Apart from the Union Ministers, Chief Ministers of BJP ruled states including Yogi Adityanath (Uttar Pradesh), Pushkar Singh Dhami (Uttarakhand) and Pramod Sawant (Goa) also took part in the campaign.
The election campaign of Congress was led by party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi and Sachin Pilot among others.
Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo Arvind Kejriwal held a roadshow in support of Congress candidates while Pilot campaigned for AAP’s South Delhi candidate Sahi Ram Pehalwan. Meanwhile, the election campaign for four Lok Sabha seats in Jharkhand also ended at 5 pm on Thursday.
A total of 93 candidates are contesting from Giridih, Dhanbad, Ranchi and Jamshedpur Lok Sabha seats in the state, out of which 16 candidates are trying their luck from Giridih, 25 from Dhanbad, 27 from Ranchi and 25 from Jamshedpur. An Election Commission official said that more than 82.16 lakh voters including 40.09 lakh women of the state will vote in this phase. Campaigning in Tamluk, Kanthi, Ghatal, Jhargram, Medinipur, Purulia, Bankura and Bishnupur Lok Sabha seats of West Bengal ended at 6 pm on Thursday.
In the last round of voting in the state, 73.63 lakh men, 71.70 lakh women and 133 transgender voters will exercise their franchise at 15,600 polling stations. A total of 79 candidates are trying their luck on eight Lok Sabha seats of West Bengal, out of which maximum 13 candidates each are from Bankura and Jhargram, 12 from Purulia and nine each from Medinipur and Tamluk. An election official said that seven candidates each are contesting from Bishnupur and Ghatal Lok Sabha seats.
The fate of many big candidates of the state is at stake in the sixth phase of Lok Sabha elections, among whom Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP from Ghatal Deepak Adhikari is pitted against BJP’s Kharagpur Sadar MLA Hiranmay Chatterjee and famous fashion designer Agnimitra Paul.
The BJP has fielded former Calcutta High Court judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay from Tamluk.
Soumyendu Adhikari, brother of Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Assembly Shubhendu Adhikari, has been fielded from Kanthi Lok Sabha seat. At the same time, senior Congress leader Nepal Mahato is contesting from Purulia Lok Sabha seat against Shantiram Mahato of TMC.
The election campaign for 10 Lok Sabha seats of Haryana ended at 5 pm on Thursday. Among the prominent leaders of the state whose fate will be at stake in the sixth phase are former Chief Minister Khattar and Kumari Selja, two Union Ministers and two senior Congress leaders.
223 candidates, including 16 women, are trying their luck on 10 parliamentary seats in the state. These include Rao Inderjit Singh and Krishna Pal Gurjar along with veteran Congress leader Deependra Singh Hooda. By-election is also being held on the Karnal seat, which became vacant after the resignation of former Chief Minister Khattar from the post of MLA, for which nine candidates are in the fray.