Polling officials check an electronic voting machine at a distribution centre ahead of the fifth phase of Indian parliamentary elections in Bangalore, India, Wednesday, April 16, 2014. The multiphase voting across the country runs until May 12, with results for the 543-seat lower house of Parliament announced May 16. (AP Photo
New Delhi, April 16 (IANS): Polling begins at 7 a.m. Thursday in 121 Lok Sabha constituencies spread over 12 states in the sixth phase of staggered general election, officials said Wednesday.
Some 197 million electorate will be eligible to pick 121 members to the lower house of parliament from among 1,767 candidates in Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Odisha, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.
Simultaneous balloting will be held for 77 of the 147 assembly seats in Odisha and two assembly constituencies in West Bengal. The earlier polling in Odisha took place April 10. “Tomorrow is a big day, and the Election Commission is all geared up,” a senior official told IANS. “We have mobilized all resources for a free and fair election.”
Election has already taken place in 111 Lok Sabha constituencies in the earlier five rounds of balloting that began April 7. Thursday will see the largest number of Lok Sabha seats in contention until now.
Among the prominent candidates Thursday are Ghulam Nabi Azad (Udhampur), Maneka Gandhi (Pilibhit), Shatrughan Sinha (Patna Sahib), Jaswant Singh (Barmer), M. Veerappa Moily (Chikkaballapur), Ananth Kumar and Nandan Nilekani (Bangalore South), Misha Bharti (Patliputra), Sachin Pilot (Ajmer), Sushilkumar Shinde (Solapur), Buta Singh (Jalore), Ashok Chavan (Nanded), Gopinath Munde (Beed), Supriya Sule (Baramati), V. Balakrishnan (Banglaore Central), B.S. Yeddyurappa (Shimoga), and S.S. Ahluwalia and Bhaichung Bhutia (Darjeeling).
According to the Election Commission, about 1.37 million staff will oversee the polling in 225,387 centres until 6 p.m., barring in the lone Manipur parliamentary seat where balloting will end at 4 p.m. Weeks of hectic campaigning including rallies and road shows for the sixth round ended Tuesday evening.
Thursday will see election in all 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka, 20 in Rajasthan, 19 in Maharashtra, 11 each in Odisha and Uttar Pradesh, seven in Bihar, six in Jharkhand, four in West Bengal, three in Chhattisgarh and one each in Manipur and Jammu and Kashmir.
In West Bengal, all eyes are on Darjeeling where football icon Bhaichung Bhutia (Trinamool Congress) is pitted against S.S. Ahluwalia (BJP). Bihar’s 117 candidates also include former union home secretary R.K. Singh (BJP).
In Rajasthan, voting will take place in 20 of the 25 constituencies including Jaipur, Jhunjhunu, Churu, Bikaner, Jodhpur, Barmer, Udaipur, Bhilwara, Ajmer and Banswara.
In Karnataka, 434 candidates are in the fray. Most constituencies will see four-way contests involving the BJP, the Congress, Janata Dal-Secular and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
The 19 seats in Maharashtra are located in Marathwada, the sugar-rich belt in the western part of the state and coastal Konkan.
In Uttar Pradesh, the 11 constituencies, including Moradabad, Nagina, Rampur, Aonla and Pilibhit, have 151 candidates. BJP’s Maneka Gandhi is trying her luck for the sixth time in a Lok Sabha contest.
In Jammu and Kashmir, union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad is facing his career’s biggest challenge in Udhampur.
In Chhattisgarh, veteran Congress leader Ajit Jogi is contesting from Mahasamund while Chief Minister Raman Singh’s son Abhishek Singh is making his electoral debut in Rajnandgaon.
Among the seats going to the polls in Jharkhand are Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Giridih and Hazaribagh.
Four more rounds of Lok Sabha election will take place until May 12. The millions of votes cast across the country will be counted May 16 - to know which party or coalition will get to rule India the next five years.
134 million have voted so far
Nearly 134 million people have voted in the first five phases of the Lok Sabha election, official statistics show. The staggered, 10-phase polls began April 7. They will end May 12.
The highest voter turnout of some 120 million was recorded April 10 when 91 constituencies in 10 states and four union territories went to polls. The least turnout was on April 11 when the lone constituency in Mizoram voted, drawing nearly half a million voters. As many as 197.1 people are eligible to vote Thursday in the sixth round of polling.
_________________
Huge stakes for Congress, BJP
New Delhi, April 16 (Agencies): Both the Congress and the BJP have huge stakes in the fifth phase of voting in 122 Lok Sabha constituencies scheduled on April 17. This phase covers largest number of Lok Sabha seats in an election spread over nine separate days beginning from April 7 to May 12.
Karnataka where all the 28 Lok Sabha constituencies would witness polling would undoubtedly be the most exciting. In the state assembly election held ten months ago the Congress captured power from the BJP which for the first time since 2008 had succeeded in forming a government. However, the May 2013 assembly election was a different ball game for the Congress as the BJP was in a very bad shape after the exit of the former Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa from the party. Now that he is back in to the party fold, the Lok Sabha poll would not the same for the Congress.
Karnataka is one state in the country where the popularity of BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi would be tested. It would be watched with keen interest as to how much difference he could make to fortunes of his party faced with Congress which emerged victorious 10 months ago.
Twenty of the 24 Lok Sabha constituencies in Rajasthan would be covered in Thursday’s poll. In the 2009 general election the Congress had won 20 seats. However, its performance in the December state assembly election was disastrous. It is to be seen if the Congress could manage to recover some ground.
In Maharashtra 19 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats are slated for voting. The Congress-NCP alliance had won 25 seats in the 2009 election. After the split in the Shiv Sena, it would be interesting to watch how much difference ‘Modi factor’ would make in the state. 11 seats each in Odisha and Uttar Pradesh are scheduled for the fifth phase. In both the states the BJP is making a determined effort to capture as many seats as possible. In Odisha the party is looking to challenge the citadel of Biju Janata Dal (BJP) led by Navin Patnaik.
Bihar is another interesting state to watch where seven of the 40 seats would see polling. It is for the first time the BJP is testing its fortunes on its own after the Janata dal (United) ended its 17 year long alliance with it.
