NEW DELHI, May 6:
Having won in 2009 nearly half of the 64 seats going to polls in the penultimate round tomorrow, Congress appears to face a difficult task when people in the whole of Seemandhra, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand cast their vote in the Lok Sabha elections tomorrow.
Conversely its main rival BJP, which currently has only five seats in tomorrow’s round, may have everything to gain if it improves its performance in parts of heartland UP and Bihar that go to polls.
Of the 64 seats in seven States, including West Bengal, Congress had won 31 in 2009 while BJP had five.
In all, voters in seven States will pick their candidates in the eighth of the nine-phased elections. Already elections have been completed in 438 of the 543 constituencies. 41 seats will go to polls in the last round on May 12.
Faced with complaints of large scale rigging in some places, the Election Commission today said that it has increased videography of polling stations to ensure free and fair poll.
The fate of 1,737 candidates, including Rahul Gandhi (Amethi), his cousin Varun (Sultanpur), Union Minister Beni Prasad Verma (Gonda), cricketer-turned-politician Md Kaif (Phulpur-all in UP), Ram Vilas Paswan (Hajipur), Rabri Devi and Rajiv Pratap Rudy (Saran-all in Bihar) is in the hands of 18.47 crore voters who are eligible to cast their franchise.
Elections will also be held tomorrow in Mandi in Himachal Pradesh where Pratibha, wife of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, is contesting while Anurag Thakur, sitting MP and son of former CM Prem Kumar Dhumal, is the candidate in Hamirpur.
Seemandhra, comprising the areas of Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra, accounting for 25 Parliamentary seats, will vote tomorrow for both Lok Sabha and Assembly. In the last two Parliamentary elections, Congress had done exceedingly well and had contributed overwhelmingly to the making of the UPA Governments at the Centre.
In 2009, the Congress had won 19 of the 25 seats in the region. It had also formed the Government in Andhra Pradesh on both the occasions.
The demise of strongman Y S Rajashekhar Reddy shortly after the 2009 polls and the split in the party effected by his son Y S Jaganmohan Reddy coupled with politics over division of the state have combined to pose big hurdles for the party in the current elections.
Besides, Andhra Pradesh, elections will be held in seven Lok Sabha constituencies in Bihar, 15 in UP, 6 in West Bengal, five in Uttarakhand and four in Himachal Pradesh.
In Uttar Pradesh, of the 15 seats going to the polls tomorrow, Congress has seven, while BSP and SP have five and three respectively.
Seven seats are up for grabs in Bihar. Of this, JD (U) ruling the State has four, while RJD has two and BJP one.
The Left parties, which had won all the six seats going to polls tomorrow in West Bengal, also face a stiff challenge from the ruling Trinamool Congress. Of the six seats, the CPI (M) has four and CPI and AIFB one each.
In the hill State of Uttarakhand, a keen and direct contest between Congress and BJP is on the cards in the five seats. Chief Minister Harish Rawat’s wife Renuka is making her maiden attempt to enter the Lok Sabha through Hardwar. In the last elections, Congress had won four of the five seats, leaving Tehri-Garwhal to BJP.
Similarly, in Himachal Pradesh, where the contest is straight between Congress and BJP, the saffron party had won three seats in the last elections.(PTI)
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