It8217;s curtains for campaigning today

An electorate of 133 million will be eligible to decide the fate of 1,080 candidates including Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee Lucknow, Congress president Sonia Gandhi Amethi, Bahujan Samaj Party vice-president Mayawati Akbarpur-Reserved, Janata Dal United president Sharad Yadav, Rashtriya Janata Dal president Laloo Prasad Yadav Madhepura and former Union minister Santosh Mohan Deb of the congress Silchar.

The fifth phase of the 13th general elections will cover 42 constituencies in West Bengal, 31 in Uttar Pradesh, 12 in Bihar, 13 in Assam, one in Andhra Pradesh, two in Arunachal Pradesh, two in Madhya Pradesh, 11 in Orissa, one in Sikkim, two in Tripura and one in Lakshadweep.

Polling will also be held on October 3 for the 32-member Sikkim Assembly, 60-member Arunachal Pradesh Assembly, seven Assembly segments in Andhra Pradesh and five in Karnataka. Arunachal Chief Minister Mukut Mithi and three other Congress nominees have already been declared elected unopposed to the 60-member House.

In Uttar Pradesh, the fate of 462 candidates will be decided by 3,77,80,363 voters in about 45,000 polling stations in 27 districts of the State.

Besides Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee from Lucknow, former Prime Minister Chandrashekhar Balia, former ministers Beni Prasad Verma Kaiserganj and Arif Mohammad Khan Bahraich and Akbar Ahmad Dumpy Azamgarh are among the prominent candidates in the fray.

Rae Bareli is another seat where two former ministers Arun Nehru and Captain Satish Sharma are locked in a direct fight.

The 31 constiteuncies going to the polls in the third phase are Sitapur, Misrikh reserved, Lucknow, Mohanlalganj res, Amethi, Sultanpur, Faizabad, Barabanki, Akbarpur reserved, Kaiserganj, Bahraich, Balrampur, Gonda, Basti reserved, Doomariaganj, Khalilabad, Bansgaon reserved, Gorakhpur, Maharajganj, Padrauna, Deoria, Salempur, Ballia, Ghosi, Azamgarh, Lalganj reserved, Macchlishahr, Jaunpur, Saidpur reserved and Ghazipur.

Electronic voting machines, which made their debut in the State, will be used in only Lucknow parliamentary constiteuncy in the last phase while these were used in Varanasi, Allahabad, Agra and Kanpur in the first phase.

Campaigning in 42 Lok Sabha constituencies in West Bengal, which will end Friday evening, has been dampened following heavy rainfall and subsequent floods in most of the State8217;s districts.

Polling for 42 Lok Sabha seats and by-election to five Assembly seats will be held in the State in the last phase of elections on October 3.

Campaigning, which was by and large peaceful, was marred by heavy rainfall and subsequent floods in 15 districts of the State and waterlogging in the Capital since last week.

In the worst-affected districts of Nadia, Bardhaman, Murshidabad and Birbhum, political parties have been concentrating more on relief and rescue operations than campaigning. According to official sources, at least seven people were killed and scores injured in pre-poll clashes.

Altogether 309 candidates, including 26 women, are in fray for the October 3 polling. Among the Left Front partners, the Communist Party of India Marxist is contesting 32 seats, the Revolutionary Socialist Party four and the Forward Bloc and the CPI three each.

The Congress is contesting all 42 seats. While the Trinamool Congress is contesting 29 seats, its ally the Bharatiya Janata Party the remaining 13. The Nationalist Congress Party is contesting 12 seats, and the BSP, 19.

Among the candidates whose fortune will be decided on October 3 are former Union Home Minister and veteran Communist leader Indrajit Gupta, CPI M heavyweight Somnath Chatterjee, former chief minister and Punjab governor S S Ray, CPI leader Geeta Mukherjee, Forward Bloc leader Amar Roy Pradhan, former Union minister A B A Ghani Khan Chowdhury, PCC working president Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi, former Union minister Ajit Kumar Panja, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee and BJP State president Tapan Sikdar.