Today, in Phase 4 of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections, Telangana and Andhra are voting for 17 and 25 seats, respectively. Along with the two key southern states, the poll battle will be fought for 13 seats in Uttar Pradesh, five in Bihar, four in Jharkhand, eight in Madhya Pradesh, 11 in Maharashtra, four in Odisha, eight in West Bengal, and one in Jammu and Kashmir, totaling to 96 seats in 10 states or Union Territories.
The assembly elections of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha too are being held on the same day. There are 175 seats in the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly and 28 in Odisha. 1717 candidates are in the fray for 96 Lok Sabha seats. The polls today mark the first major political step after the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019.
There are several High-Profile contests in today’s poll battle. Prominent among them is Samajwadi party Chief and former UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, who is returning to Kannauj after 2009. Akhilesh Yadav’s wife, Dimple Yadav, lost the 2019 elections from Kannauj, a seat represented in the past by Ram Manohar Lohia and Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Cricketer Yusuf Pathan from Vadodara, Gujarat, is a TMC candidate in West Bengal’s Baharampur seat. He is contesting against Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury. The spotlight will also be on AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi for the Hyderabad seat, where BJP candidate Madhavi Lata has managed to stay in the news by her theatrical demeanor.
All eyes will be on Mahua Moitra, who is contesting from Krishnanagar in West Bengal after being expelled from Lok Sabha amid cash-for-query allegations and controversy surrounding her personal spat with a “jilted ex”.
In the first three phases of the Lok Sabha elections, the voter turnout has been 66.14 percent, 66.71 percent, and 65.68 percent, respectively.
