Campaigning concludes in 64 Lok Sabha constituencies

Electioneering for 64 Lok Sabha seats from seven states ended on Monday, with just another day to go before the constituencies go to polls in the eighth and penultimate phase of the one-and-half-month-long parliamentary elections.

Over 9.54 crore voters are expected to cast their ballots on Wednesday to decide the fate of 897 candidates, including the scions of Nehru-Gandhi family – Rahul Gandhi and his cousin Varun Gandhi.

While Rahul, the vice president of the Congress, is contesting from Amethi in Uttar Pradesh, Varun, a national secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party, is his party’s candidate in neighbouring Sultanpur.

The last day of campaigning saw BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi holding a rally in Amethi, seeking votes for actress-turned-politician Smriti Irani, who is the BJP’s bet against Rahul in what is perceived to be a stronghold of the Gandhi family.

Modi accused the Gandhi family for neglecting Amethi and caring little for development of the constituency, in spite of representing its people in Lok Sabha for four decades.
Priyanka Gandhi has accused Modi of insulting her father Rajiv Gandhi and said that people of Amethi would respond to this insult on Wednesday.

Apart from Rahul and Irani, 32 others, including Aam Aadmi Party’s Kumar Viswas, are also in the fray in Amethi.  
Rahul, who, himself, addressed a rally in Phulpur in Uttar Pradesh, accused Modi of acquiring land from the farmers for the benefit of a particular industrial group.
He was seeking votes for former cricketer Mohammad Kaif, the Congress candidate in Phulpur.

Varun, the son of Rajiv’s brother Sanjay Gandhi, has against him Congress candidate Amita Singh, the wife of sitting Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh.

Altogether, 15 parliamentary constituencies in Uttar Pradesh are going to polls on Wednesday, when 26,241,592 voters are expected to cast their votes to decide the fate of 243 candidates.

Twenty-five Lok Sabha seats of the Seemandhra region of Andhra Pradesh will also go to polls on Wednesday. Altogether 36,762,976 voters are expected to vote to decide the future of 333 candidates.

The Telugu Desam Party has an alliance with the BJP for both the Lok Sabha and the Assembly polls in Andhra Pradesh and the alliance is facing tough challenge from the YSR Congress Party led by Y S Jaganmohan Reddy.

The Congress, however, found it difficult in Seemandhra, as it was blamed for the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Rahul campaigned for the party in Seemandhra, trying to win hearts by listing the series of initiatives the United Progressive Alliance Government planned for development of the region. 

Former Minister of State for Commerce, D Purandeswari, daughter of N T Rama Rao, is fighting from Rajampet as a BJP candidate.

She quit the Congress to protest the creation of Telangana. Adala Prabhakara Reddy of the TDP is contesting in Nellore against sitting MP and YSR Congress party candidate Mekapati Rajamohan Reddy.

Altogether 10,579,997 voters will cast their votes on Wednesday to decide the fates of 118 candidates in seven constituencies in Bihar.

Ramvilas Paswan, leader of the Lok Janshakti Party, is contesting from Hajipur, while Lalu Prasad's wife Rabri Devi is the Rashtriya Janata Dal’s candidate in Saran.
Altogether 4,810,071 voters will cast votes to elect four MPs out of 38 candidates in
Himachal Pradesh.

Chief Minister Veerbhadra Singh’s wife and sitting Congress MP Pratibha Singh and BJP leader P K Dhumal’s son Anurag Thakur are among the candidates trying their luck in four constituencies. B C Khanduri and Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank of the BJP and Renuka Rawat and Pradeep Tamta of the Congress are among the 74 candidates contesting for the five Lok Sabha seats in Uttarakhand, where 6,883,379 voters are expected to cast their votes.

Bollywood singer Babul Supriyo of the BJP, former actress Moon Moon Sen, and Basudev Acharia of the CPI (M) are among the 72 candidates trying their luck for six constituencies in West Bengal.