Lucknow: Voting will be held on Monday on 14 Lok Sabha seats of Uttar Pradesh. The 14 seats of the fifth phase include Mohanlalganj (SC), Lucknow, Rae Bareli, Amethi, Jalaun (SC), Jhansi, Hamirpur, Banda, Fatehpur, Kaushambi (SC), Barabanki (SC), Faizabad, Kaiserganj and Gonda. A total of 144 candidates are in the fray on the 14 seats of the fifth phase. There are more than 2.5 crore voters on the 14 seats of the fifth phase.
Out of the 14 seats of the fifth phase, 10 seats are of general category and four seats are reserved for scheduled castes. Out of these, 13 seats are currently with the BJP while the only Rae Bareli seat is with the Congress. In the fifth phase, mainly Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is in the fray from Lucknow, Rahul Gandhi of Congress from Rae Bareli and Yogi government’s Minister of State for Horticulture (Independent Charge) Dinesh Pratap Singh from BJP, Smriti Irani from Amethi, Union Minister of State for Housing and Urban Development Kaushal Kishore from Mohanlalganj, Lallu Singh of BJP from Faizabad seat and nine-time MLA Awadhesh Prasad of SP are in the fray.
Brijbhushan Sharan Singh’s son Karan Bhushan Singh from Kaiserganj, Union Minister of State Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti from Fatehpur, former state president Naresh Uttam Patel from SP and Pradeep Jain Aditya of Congress are contesting from Jhansi seat. BJP has fielded candidates again on 12 seats. New candidates are in the fray on two seats, Barabanki and Kaiserganj. The voting percentage in the fourth phase in the state on May 13 was 58.22. There is a possibility of a triangular contest with NDA, India Block and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) fielding their candidates. In this phase, BJP would like to score a hat-trick of victory on 12 seats with a clean sweep.
Important information related to the fifth phase of Lok Sabha elections
In this phase, BJP won all the seats except Rae Bareli in 2019. BJP’s Kaushal Kishore, SP’s RK Chaudhary and BSP’s Rajesh Kumar alias Manoj Pradhan are the candidates on Mohanlalganj reserved seat. In Lucknow, BJP has fielded Modi government’s Defense Minister Rajnath Singh. At the same time, BSP has fielded Mohammad Sarwar Malik from Lucknow West and SP has fielded sitting MLA Ravidas Mehrotra.
BJP has fielded Yogi government’s Minister of State for Horticulture (Independent Charge) Dinesh Pratap Singh from Rae Bareli. He is pitted against former Congress national president Rahul Gandhi. BSP has bet on Thakur Prasad Yadav. The most interesting contest is being seen on this seat.
Modi government minister Smriti Zubin Irani is in the fray from Amethi seat. Congress has given ticket to Kishori Lal, close to the Gandhi family, on this seat. Nanhe Singh Chauhan is challenging from BSP. In 2019, Smriti Irani defeated Rahul Gandhi, this time Rahul is contesting from Rae Bareli.
Modi government minister Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma is contesting from BJP from Jalaun (SC) seat. Narayan Das Ahirwar from SP and Suresh Chandra Gautam from BSP are contesting. BJP has bet on Anurag Sharma from Jhansi parliamentary seat. Former MP Pradeep Jain ‘Aditya’ from Congress and Ravi Prakash from BSP are in the fray.
BJP has expressed confidence in Kunwar Pushpendra Singh Chandel for the third time from Hamirpur. SP has bet on Ajendra Singh Lodhi and BSP has bet on Nirdosh Kumar Dixit. BJP has bet on RK Singh Patel for the second time from Banda. Krishna Devi Shivshankar Patel from SP and Mayank Dwivedi from BSP are contesting.
Modi government minister Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti is contesting for the third time from Fatehpur. She is pitted against former SP state president Naresh Chandra Uttam Patel and BSP’s Manish Singh Sachan. Vinod Kumar Sonkar is contesting on a BJP ticket for the third time from Kaushambi (SC) seat. SP has expressed confidence in Pushpendra Saroj and BSP in Shubh Narayan. This time BJP has bet on new face Rajrani Rawat from Barabanki (SC) seat. Tanuj Punia from Congress and Shiv Kumar from BSP are contesting double elections.
Sitting MP Lallu Singh from Faizabad is contesting on a BJP ticket for the third time. He is pitted against former minister SP candidate Avdyesh Prasad and BSP’s Sachchidanand Pandey. This time BJP has fielded his son Karan Bhushan Singh in place of sitting Kaiserganj MP Brijbhushan Sharan Singh. Narendra Pandey from BSP and Bhagat Ram from SP are challenging the BJP candidate.
BJP has expressed confidence in Kirti Vardhan Singh for the third time on Gonda parliamentary seat. SP has fielded Shreya Verma, granddaughter of senior socialist leader late Beni Prasad Verma, as its candidate from this seat of Awadh region. Saurabh is contesting elections from BSP.
