End of the 58-seat canvass in eight states
On Thursday night, the sixth phase of the election campaign came to a conclusion in 58 seats spread over eight states and union territories: Delhi, Haryana, West Bengal, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, and J&K. The election is scheduled for May 25.
In addition to the seven seats in Delhi, elections will be conducted for the following seats: fourteen in Uttar Pradesh, ten in Haryana, eight in each of Bihar and West Bengal, six in Odisha, four in Jharkhand, and one in Jammu & Kashmir. The NDA (BJP and its partners) had won 44 of these seats in the last elections, while the Congress had won none.
Leaders of the BJP and the opposition-backed India alliance did not hold back on their penultimate day of campaigning. Defense Minister Rajnath Singh spoke to a crowd in Dwarka, Delhi, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a rally in Bhiwani, Haryana. In Najafgarh, Union Minister Piyush Goyal conducted a roadshow. Rahul Gandhi, the head of the Congress, supported the party’s candidate from North East Delhi with a rally and then a meeting in Mangolpuri. In Sirsa, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had a roadshow.
There are 889 contenders in the race. Former Union Minister and BJP leader Maneka Gandhi (Sultanpur, UP), former chief minister of Haryana Manohar Lal Khattar (Karnal), Congressman Deepender Hooda (Rohtak), former chief minister of J&K Mehbooba Mufti (Anantnag), BJP leader Rao Inderjit Singh (Gurugram), and Congressman Raj Babbar are among the prominent contenders.
In North East Delhi, Congressman Kanhaiya Kumar, a former head of JNU’s student union, will square off against current BJP MP Manoj Tiwari. In addition, Chandni Chowk-based BJP candidate Praveen Khandelwal will face off against seasoned Congressman and former MP Jai Prakash Agrawal.
The eight seats in West Bengal will host some intriguing contests. Debangshu Bhattacharya of the TMC, who ran on the platform “Khela Hobe,” will face BJP candidate and former Calcutta High Court judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay in Tamluk. Gangopadhyay was barred from campaigning for a day by the Election Commission after he was accused of making derogatory remarks against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
