43/59 sitting MPs in sixth phase belong to BJP

As the Lok Sabha election enters the sixth and penultimate phase coming on Sunday, fifty-nine seats are up for grabs and Opposition believes this would be one more phase where BJP is likely to suffer.

In the sixth phase, BJP holds almost 72% or 43 of the 59 seats and its allies another two. If one takes the 2014 results, BJP had won 44 seats but it lost the Phulpur seat to Samajwadi Party in a bypoll last year.

Opposition leaders believe BJP may not be able to repeat this performance and it could gain in this phase as it could do in the previous fourth and fifth phases. Analysis has shown that at present BJP has 119 out of 302 seats that went to polls in first three phases and 140 out of 240 that will be going to polls in the last four phases.

Out of the 71 seats that went to polls in the fourth phase, 45 were BJP sitting seats while in the fifth phase it was 38 out of 51.

A senior Opposition leader told DH that conventional wisdom suggests that BJP cannot improve from this figure, especially because the political dynamics in states have changed in favour of the Opposition parties and coalitions.

Congress holds only two seats that go to polls – Guna in Madhya Pradesh where Jyotiraditya Scindia is an MP and Haryana's Rohtak where Deepender Hooda has won.

Of the eight seats that are going to polls in West Bengal, Trinamool Congress has all the MPs. It is to be seen how BJP fares in these seats and some sections say the saffron party has chances in a couple of seats, especially in Purulia.

INLD has two MPs, though one of them Dushyant Chautala has split from his parent party to form Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) along with his father and brother.

NDA allies LJP has one in Bihar while Apna Dal has one in Uttar Pradesh. Samajwadi Party has two seats in Uttar Pradesh, which includes Azamgarh from where SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav is a sitting MP. This time, SP chief and Mulayam's son Akhilesh Yadav is fighting from Azamgarh.

For BJP, the most seats came from UP where it won 11 out of 14 seats that are going to polls in the sixth phase. While it won all the seven seats in Delhi, it also won seven each seat from Bihar, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh in this phase.

The four seats that are going to polls in Jharkhand are also held by the BJP.

In the last and seventh phase, there are 59 seats in a contest that includes 13 each in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.

Infographics

State / Seats Going to contest / Party Sitting Seats

Bihar – 8 – BJP 7, LJP, 1
Haryana – 10 – BJP 7, INLD 2, Congress 1
Jharkhand – 4 – BJP 4
Madhya Pradesh – 8 – BJP 7, Congress 1
Uttar Pradesh – 14 – BJP 11, Apna Dal 1, Samajwadi Party 2
West Bengal – 8 – Trinamool Congress 8
Delhi – 7 – BJP 7