Phase 5: Voting in 49 Lok Sabha constituencies today

The stakes are significant for the BJP and its allies in this phase, which has the least number of constituencies going to vote. Of the 49 seats, the BJP alone had won 32 in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The undivided Shiv Sena, which was with the BJP then, had won seven and the JD(U) and LJP one each. So, the then NDA had won 41 of these 49 seats.

The Congress had won just one seat — Sonia Gandhi in Raebareli — while its allies had bagged five (four by the Trinamool Congress and one by National Conference). The BJD had won two seats.

With the fifth phase, the election exercise would be over in 25 states and Union territories, covering 428 of the total 543 Lok Sabha constituencies.

In 2019, the seats going to polls in the fifth phase had recorded an overall voter turnout of 61.82 per cent. While the first three phases recorded a dip in turnout since the last time, the turnout in 96 constituencies in the fourth phase was 69.16% – slightly higher than the 68.8 per cent turnout in these seats in 2019.

In the first phase on April 19, when 102 constituencies went to polls, the final turnout was 66.14 per cent, down from around 69.29 per cent in 2019. In the second phase on April 26, in which 88 seats voted, the final turnout was 66.71 per cent, down from 69.43 per cent in 2019. In the third phase on May 7, across 93 constituencies, the final turnout was 65.68 per cent as compared to 66.58 per cent in 2019.

With just two more phases left after Monday, both the BJP and the Opposition have sharpened their attacks. Campaigning in West Bengal on Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused the ruling Trinamool Congress of insulting the faith of Hindus to appease its vote bank and asserted that infiltrators are “perilous” to West Bengal since they are “disturbing” the demography of the state.

In Uttar Pradesh, Home Minister Amit Shah claimed the Opposition leaders did not attend the consecration ceremony of the Ram temple in Ayodhya as they were afraid of losing their vote bank.

Meanwhile, addressing a rally in Prayagraj with Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said: “The fight is to save the Constitution. The BJP and RSS are attacking it, and I want to tell them that no power can tear and throw the Constitution away.”

This round of polls is key for the Congress as it is trying to regain the Amethi constituency from the BJP and retain Raebareli, where Rahul is in the fray. In Amethi, Union Minister Smriti Irani is aiming for a second straight win.

Of the 49 seats, 14 are in Uttar Pradesh. Besides Amethi and Raebareli, these include Faizabad, Lucknow, Mohanlalganj, Kaiserganj, Barabanki, Hamirpur, Banda, Fatehpur, Jhansi, Jalaun, Kaushambi and Gonda. The BJP had won 13 of these seats in 2019.

In Lucknow, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is in the fray for the third time. The other ministers in the fray are Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti from Fatehpur, Kaushal Kishore from Mohanlalganj and Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma from Jalaun.

The one seat which remained in discussions since the elections were announced is Kaiserganj where the BJP replaced sitting MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh — who has been accused of sexual harassment — with his son Karan.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah did not campaign in Kaiserganj.

In Maharashtra, 13 constituencies are going to polls. The election exercise will be over in the state with this phase. Of the 13 seats, six are in Mumbai.

The constituencies of Mumbai North West, Mumbai South and Mumbai South Central saw a direct battle between the Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena (UBT). In 2019, the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance had won these three seats, along with Mumbai North East, Mumbai North Central, and Mumbai North.

In Mumbai North, a seat that it won the last two times, the BJP has fielded Union Minister Piyush Goyal who is making his Lok Sabha poll debut. Up against him is Mumbai Congress vice-president Bhushan Patil. Mumbai North Central will see another high-voltage clash between former public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikkam, who has handled high-profile cases such as the trial of Ajmal Kasab, and Mumbai Congress chief Varsha Gaikwad.

Apart from UP and Maharashtra, seven seats in West Bengal, five seats each in Odisha and Bihar, three in Jharkhand and one each in J&K and Ladakh will go to polls on Monday. Of the five seats in Bihar, Saran is witnessing a high-profile contest between RJD debutant Rohini Acharya, the daughter of party chief Lalu Prasad, and former Union Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy, the BJP’s sitting MP who has won the constituency several times.

In J&K, the lone seat of Baramulla which will vote tomorrow will decide the electoral fate of National Conference leader Omar Abdullah. Pitted against him are separatist-turned-politician and former minister Sajad Lone, who heads the People’s Conference, and jailed Awami Ittehad Party leader and former MLA Abdul Rashid Sheikh alias Engineer Rashid.