After six weeks of voting across the country, the counting of votes will finally take place on June 4. While the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA is seeking a third term for its government, the Congress-led INDIA bloc is confident of snatching power from the saffron camp this Lok Sabha election.
Notably, the News18 Mega Exit Poll suggested that the BJP could win a majority with 305 to 315 seats and Congress might win over 62-72 seats. As per the predictions, NDA will bag victory in Lok Sabha polls by winning 355 to 370, while the Opposition-led INDIA bloc will win 125 to 140 seats.
With just a few hours left for the counting to begin, here are the key battles to watch out for:
PM Modi Vs 6 Others In Varanasi
Varanasi, the constituency that went to polls in the seventh and last phase of Lok Sabha polls, had all the eyes on it as Prime Minister Narendra Modi contested for the third consecutive time for the seat, following his successful bids in the 2014 and 2019 elections.
With high hopes, the Congress party pitted its Uttar Pradesh Congress chief and a seasoned politician with roots in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Ajay Rai, against Prime Minister Modi. Other candidates in the poll fray are: Kolisetty Shiva Kumar (Yuga Thulasi Party), Ather Jamal Lari (Bahujan Samaj Party), Gagan Prakash Yadav, (Apna Dal, Kameravadi), Dinesh Kumar Yadav (Independent) and Sanjay Kumar Tiwari (Independent)
Rahul Gandhi From Wayanad & Raebareli
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will be fighting from two seats in this Lok Sabha polls – Wayanad and Raebaeli.
While Rahul will represent the Wayanad seat in Kerala for the second time in a row, News18 Mega Exit Poll survey indicated. The Congress scion will be facing BJP state president K Surendran and a high-profile CPI leader Annie Raja in Wayanad. Meanwhile, with pressure to claim the Gandhi family’s bastion Raebareli, Rahul will be facing Bharatiya Janata Party’s Dinesh Pratap Singh.
Amit Shah From Gandhinagar
BJP candidate Amit Shah is again ready to contest the Lok Sabha battle from his home state Gujarat’s Gandhinagar. The Home Minister has been pitted against Congress’ Sonal Patel, the former women’s wing’s chairperson of the Gujarat Congress in the urban seat.
Notably, in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, Amit Shah defeated Congress’ Chatursinh Javanji Chavda by a massive margin of 5.5 votes.
Akhilesh Yadav Vs BJP’s Subrat Pathak In UP’s Kannauj
Samajwadi Party (SP) chief and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav is contesting from the Kannauj Lok Sabha seat where he is pitted against the BJP candidate and the sitting MP Subrat Pathak.
Kannauj Lok Sabha constituency has been a traditional Samajwadi Party seat for decades. In the year 1967, Ram Manohar Lohia won the election as a Samyukta Socialist Party candidate, following which Janata Party held the seat twice. The seat then went to the SP and became their traditional seat due to charismatic strategy of Akhilesh’s father and former UP CM Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Smriti Irani vs KL Sharma In Amethi
Amethi, one of the prime parliamentary seats of Uttar Pradesh, is set to see a tough fight between BJP leader Smriti Irani and Congress’ KL Sharma. While Smriti won the seat in 2019, KL Sharma is believed to be a Gandhi family loyalist.
Amethi, established as a constituency in 1967, had long been a stronghold of the Congress, represented by key figures of the Nehru-Gandhi family, including Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, Sanjay Gandhi, and Rajiv Gandhi. The Gandhi family legacy in Amethi was broken by BJP’s Smriti Irani after she defeated Rahul Gandhi, marking a significant shift in the constituency’s political landscape.
Shashi Tharoor vs Rajeev Chandrasekhar In Thiruvananthapuram
The Thiruvananthapuram constituency, one of 20 Lok Sabha constituencies in Kerala, will witness a fight between sitting MP Shashi Tharoor (Congress) and Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar. The seat is set to witness a three-way contest as CPI has fielded Panniyan Raveendran.
The Congress and the CPI are in alliance at the national level as part of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), but in Kerala, they are contesting against each other.
HD Kumaraswamy Vs Gowda In Karnataka’s Mandya
The Mandya seat in Karnataka is set to see a high-voltage battle between JD(S) heavyweight and former CM HD Kumaraswamy and Congress candidate Venkataramane Gowda. However, as per News18 Exit Poll, the battle is likely to lean towards Kumaraswamy.
The seat is traditionally dominated by the Congress and JD(S), with the Vokkaliga community, comprising over 50 percent voters.
BJP’s Kangana Ranaut Vs Congress’s Vikramaditya Singh
Two key candidates for the Lok Sabha polls in Mandi are BJP’s Kangana Ranaut and Vikramaditya Singh of the Congress. Traditionally, the Congress party has dominated the seat of Mandi, with the late Virbhadra Singh representing it thrice, and Pratibha Singh winning three times including two by-polls.
AIMIM Chief Asaduddin Owaisi Vs BJP’s Madhavi Latha In Hyderabad
The Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat is witnessing a heated contest between sitting MP and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi and the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Sanatan Dharma proponent Madhavi Latha.
According to the News18 Mega Exit Poll projections, four-time MP Owaisi could retain his stronghold. Though newcomer Latha is set to give him a close fight.
Annamalai Vs DMK’s Ganapaty Rajkumar Vs AIADMK Singai G Ramachandran
Tamil Nadu’s second-largest city, Coimbatore, is witnessing a clash of titans in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections as the BJP has fielded its firebrand leader and state unit chief K Annamalai against former city Mayor and DMK candidate P Ganapaty Rajkumar, and Singai G Ramachandran of the AIADMK.
Mahua Vs Rani Ma From Bengal’s Krishnanagar
Trinamool Congress leader Mahua Moitra, an ex-MP from Krishnanagar, is again up and running as she seeks re-election from her old seat. To give a tough fight to Moitra, the BJP fielded “Rani Ma”, Amrita Roy, whose family is known to have allied with the British and engineered Nawab’s defeat. Roy belongs to the erstwhile royal family and is the wife of the descendant of Raja Krishna Chandra Roy, on whom the town was named.
The electoral battle here is interesting for several reasons not just because it is an elite vs royal fight, but because it is a fight between a candidate and a party. The battle lines are drawn between Mahua Moitra and the BJP.
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