With 5 Phases Over, Delhi Takes Center Stage in 6th Leg of Lok Sabha Elections

New Delhi: As 58 constituencies in six states and two Union Territories vote on Saturday in the sixth and penultimate phase of the Lok Sabha elections 2024, a fierce battle will be witnessed on several seats including the North-East Delhi seat which will see a fierce battle between BJP’s Manoj Tiwari and Congress candidate Kanhaiya Kumar. The main focus of today’s elections will rest with the national capital where all the seven Lok Sabha seats will exercise their franchise. Simultaneously, assembly polls are also underway for 42 seats in Odisha.

BJP Vs AAP + Congress in Delhi

The seven Delhi seats polling today include East Delhi, West Delhi, New Delhi and South Delhi, Chandni Chowk, North East Delhi and North West Delhi. A total of 162 candidates in the national capital are testing their fates in the crucial polls with the maximum contesting from the North East Delhi constituency. A total of 1.52 crore voters, including 82 lakh males, 69 lakh females and 1,228 of the third gender category, -- are eligible to exercise their franchises. There are more than 2.52 lakh first-time voters in the city this time.

In Delhi, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Congress have jointly fielded candidates against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for all the seven seats. In a AAP-Congress united battle, the AAP is contesting on four seats namely New Delhi, East Delhi, South Delhi, and West Delhi whereas Congress has fielded candidates in remaining three Lok Sabha seats- Chandni Chowk, North-East, and North-West.

Key Candidates in Delhi

The key candidates in the poll battle include BJP candidates Bansuri Swaraj & Manoj Tiwari and Congress candidate Kanhaiya Kumar. The AAP has given ticket to Kuldeep Kumar from the East Delhi seat, Mahabal Mishra from West Delhi, Somnath Bharti from New Delhi and Sahi Ram Pahalwan from South Delhi.

Meanwhile, the Congress has fielded JP Agarwal from the Chandni Chowk seat, Kanhaiya Kumar from North East Delhi seat and Udit Raj from the North West Delhi constituency.

This time the saffron party has fielded only one sitting MP in Delhi with actor-politician Manoj Tiwari been given a Delhi poll ticket for a second consecutive term.

The BJP has fielded Manoj Tiwari from North East Delhi, Ramvir Singh Bidhuri from South Delhi, Bansuri Swaraj from New Delhi, Harsh Deep Malhotra from East Delhi, Yogendra Chandolia from North West Delhi, Praveen Khandelwal from Chandni Chowk and Kamaljeet Sehrawat from West Delhi.

Daughter of late former Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj, Bansuri is contesting the New Delhi seat against the AAP's Somnath Bharti. This seat was won by the BJP's Meenakshi Lekhi in 2014 and 2019 elections, and the Congress' Ajay Maken for the two prior elections. 

The BJP emerged victorious on all seven seats in Delhi in the 2014 and the 2019 general elections with huge margins and is aiming for a clean sweep for the third time in a row.

8 Seats in Bengal Vote Today

Eight Lok Sabha seats, including Tamluk and Kanthi, in Bengal are voting today. The main fight remains to be seen in Tamluk as BJP has fielded former Calcutta High Court judge Abhijit Ganguly against TMC’s Debangshu Bhattacharya, party's youth wing leader.

Meanwhile, in Kanthi the BJP has given ticket to Sovewndhu Adhikari’s brother Soumendu Adhikari against TMC's Uttam Barik.

In the 2019 polls, BJP won five of these seats last time. The Trinamool got three.

8 Seats In Bihar Vote Today

In Bihar, eight parliamentary segments, including Valmiki Nagar, Pashchim Champaran, Purvi Champaran, Sheohar, Siwan, Gopalganj, Maharajganj and Vaishali constituencies are voting today. Over 86 candidates are in the fray in this phase  whose fate will be decided by over 1.49 crore voters. The last election in the state was dominated by the BJP and the party-led NDA. Out of total 40 seats in the state, 39 seats were won by NDA. In the last election which saw voting on these eight seats, BJP claimed four whereas Nitish Kumar led JDU won three and LJP secured one. This time all the three parties are allied to fight against the INDI bloc after a U-turn by Nitish Kumar - who helped found the INDIA bloc.

Poll battle in UP

In Uttar Pradesh, 14 Lok Sabha segments are voting today in the six phase of the elections. These seats include Sultanpur, Pratapgarh, Phulpur, Allahabad, Ambedkar Nagar, Shrawasti, Domariyaganj, Basti, Sant Kabir Nagar, Lalganj, Azamgarh, Jaunpur, Machhlishahr and Bhadohi.
Simultaneously, the bypoll for the Gainsari assembly seat in Balrampur is also being held. 

The elections will decide the fate of key contender and BJP’s Maneka Gandhi who is seeking her ninth term as an MP. Maneka Gandhi faces off against Samajwadi Party's Ram Bhual Nishad for Sultanpur seat.

As many as 162 candidates, 146 men and 16 women, are in the fray whose fate will be decided by electorates.

Fight of Prestige in Odisha

In Odisha, six seats are polling today with the stage set for a big battle in Bhubaneshwar, Sambalpur and Puri.

These six seats include Sambalpur, Keonjhar, Dhenkanal, Cuttack, Bhubaneswar and Puri. Over 94.48 lakh voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in 10,581 booths in the third round of simultaneous elections in the state.
The prominent leaders whose fate will be decided in this phase include Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, BJD organisational secretary and MLA Pranab Prakash Das and BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra.
In Sambalpur the BJD's Pranab Prakash Das is contesting against a BJP heavyweight - Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. 

In Puri, the BJP's Sambit Patra is aiming to win a prestigious fight given that in 2019 Patra lost this seat to the BJD's Pinaki Mishra by a one per cent margin.

Meanwhile, Bhubaneswar sees a three-way fight between BJP’s Aparajita Sarangi, BJD's Manmath Routray and Congress' Yasir Nawaz.

Voting on All 7 Seats in Haryana 

All the 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana are polling today. Simultaneously, by-election is also being held to the Karnal Assembly seat. As many as 223 candidates are in the fray whose fate will be decided by the over 2 crore voters.
The key candidates in today’s elections include Union ministers Rao Inderjit Singh and Krishan Pal Gurjar and Congress heavyweights Kumari Selja and Deepender Singh Hooda.
In Karnal, former Chief Minister ML Khattar faces off Congress’ Divyanshu Budhiraja.

For Kurukshetra, the BJP has contested Naveen Jindal against the AAP's Sushil Gupta; a third candidate in the form of the INLD's Abhay Singh Chautala adds a touch of the unknown.

Congress has fielded actor Raj Babbar in Gurgaon.

Haryana is another state where the INDIA bloc is present, with the Congress and AAP sharing seats.

Phase 7 on June 1

The seventh and final phase of the general elections 2024 is slated to be held on June 1.

The main focus then will be on Varanasi seat in UP which will see a electoral battle between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress candidate Ajai Rai. 
The results for the election will be announced on June 4.