With just a day left for the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections, let’s take a look at the key contenders in the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA and the opposition INDIA bloc.
The Coimbatore Lok Sabha seat is set to witness a high-stakes battle, featuring Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai, DMK leader Ganapathy P Rajkumar, and AIADMK’s Singai Ramachandran.
Annamalai faces tough competition from parties like the DMK and AIADMK, which have considerable influence among voters in the southern region.
In a post on X, Annamalai said, “For an honest political change to take place in Tamil Nadu, for youth politics to be born, for equal opportunities to flourish for all, for the pride of Kongu land to be known throughout the country, for Coimbatore to travel on the path of development, I earnestly request all the voters of the Coimbatore to vote for the lotus symbol.”
Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari, will be eyeing a third straight victory from Maharashtra’s Nagpur constituency. Gadkari faces Congress candidate Vikas Thakre, the current MLA from Nagpur West.
Gadkari won the 2019 Lok Sabha election with a massive vote share of 55.7 per cent. He defeated the current Maharashtra Congress President, Nana Patole, by a margin of 2,16,009 votes.
Voters in Uttar Pradesh’s Pilbhit constituency will determine the fate of Jitin Prasada, who has been fielded by the BJP against Samajwadi Party’s Bhagwant Saran Gangwar and Bahujan Samaj Party’s (BSP) Anees Ahmes Khan.
Prasad, who quit Congress in 2021, was given the Lok Sabha ticket, replacing the two-time MP Varun Gandhi who won the 2019 elections by a margin of 704,549 votes,
Prasada secured victory in the 2004 elections from Shahajahanpur and in the 2009 elections from Dharura.
Former Bihar Chief Minister and leader of Hindustani Awam Morcha-Secular (HAM-S) party, Jitan Ram Manjhi, is contesting the Gaya seat in Bihar as an ally of the BJP-led NDA.
With a total of 14 candidates contesting the elections, Gaya, a reserved seat, has the highest number of contenders in the fray.
Manjhi faces RJD candidate Kumar Sarvjeet. In the last Lok Sabha election, JD (U) candidate Vijay Kumar defeated Manjhi by a margin of more than 1.52 lakh votes.
“Wherever we are going, everyone is raising slogans of ‘Abki baar 400 paar’. People themselves are saying that they will vote for PM Modi. We don’t see any challenge,” Manjhi said.
In Madhya Pradesh, which has a total of 29 Lok Sabha seats, the BJP is leaving no stone unturned to snatch the lone parliamentary seat of Chhindwara won by the Congress in 2019.
Nakul Nath, the incumbent MP and son of former Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath, is contesting from the Chhindwara seat against BJP candidate Vivek Bunty Sahu, who lost to Kamal Nath in the last two assembly polls.
After filing the nomination papers, Nakul Nath said, “I have full faith that the people of Chhindwara will give their love and blessings to me again.”
The Jorhat seat in Assam, a stronghold of the BJP, will witness a contest between Congress’ deputy leader in Lok Sabha, Gaurav Gogoi, and the incumbent BJP MP Topon Kumar Gogoi.
The Congress MP contested the last election from the family’s stronghold Kaziranga (erstwhile Kaliabor).
(ANI)