Canvassing ends for 58 seats in 8 states

Tribune News Service

Animesh Singh

New Delhi, May 23

Campaigning for the sixth phase of polling in 58 constituencies across eight states and union territories — Delhi, Haryana, West Bengal, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and J&K — ended on Thursday evening. The polling will be held on May 25.

Besides all seven seats in Delhi, polling will be held for 14 seats in Uttar Pradesh, all 10 seats of Haryana, eight seats each in Bihar and West Bengal, six seats in Odisha, four seats in Jharkhand and one seat in Jammu and Kashmir. In the previous elections, the NDA (BJP and its allies) had won 44 of these seats and the Congress none.

On the final day of campaigning, leaders of both BJP and the opposition-backed INDIA bloc spared no effort. Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a rally in Bhiwani, Haryana, while Defence Minister Rajnath Singh addressed a gathering in Dwarka, Delhi. Union Minister Piyush Goyal held a roadshow in Najafgarh. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi held a rally in support of party candidate from North East Delhi and later held a gathering in Mangolpuri. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra conducted a roadshow in Sirsa.

A total of 889 candidates are in the fray. Among the key contestants are former Union Minister and BJP leader Maneka Gandhi (Sultanpur, UP), former Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar (Karnal), Congress leader Deepender Hooda (Rohtak), former J&K CM Mehbooba Mufti (Anantnag), BJP leader Rao Inderjit Singh (Gurugram) and Congress’ Raj Babbar.

Delhi will see Congress leader and former president of JNU’s student union Kanhaiya Kumar locking horns with sitting BJP MP Manoj Tiwari in North East Delhi. Also, veteran Congress leader and former MP Jai Prakash Agrawal will be contesting against BJP’s Praveen Khandelwal from Chandni Chowk.

West Bengal’s eight seats will see some interesting battles. Tamluk will witness TMC’s Debangshu Bhattacharya (who had given the slogan “Khela Hobe”) contesting against BJP candidate and former Calcutta HC judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay, who was banned from campaigning for a day by the EC for allegedly making sexist comments against CM Mamata Banerjee.

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