New Delhi:
Today, 88 constituencies in 13 states and Union Territories will go to the polls amid a furious row between the Congress and the BJP over the manifesto and inheritance tax. Elections will be held in all seats of Kerala, part of Rajasthan and UP.
Here are the top 10 points in this big story:
Elections will be held for 20 seats in Kerala, 14 seats in Karnataka, 13 in Rajasthan, eight in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, seven in Madhya Pradesh, five in Assam and Bihar, three each in Bengal and Chhattisgarh. one each in Jammu and Kashmir, Manipur and Tripura.
Previously, 89 constituencies were expected to vote in this phase. But the elections in Betul, Madhya Pradesh, were postponed following the death of a candidate of Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party. Betul will now vote in the third phase, which is scheduled to take place on May 7.
Leading candidates for this round include BJP's Union Minister Rajeev Chandrashekhar against Congress' Shashi Tharoor from Thiruvananthapuram; actors Hema Malini and Arun Govil from the iconic 1980s series Ramayan, senior BJP leader Tejasvi Surya and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, Congress' Rahul Gandhi, KC Venugopal, Bhupesh Baghel. and Ashok Gehlot's son Vaibhav Gehlot.
For both the BJP and the Opposition, the most crucial states in this phase will be Karnataka and Kerala. Karnataka is the only BJP stronghold in the south, where Congress won the last Assembly elections. The party hopes to do well given the concerns over demarcation and the disadvantages that the southern states might face afterwards.
Further south, the BJP is trying to break into Kerala's bipolar politics. The party hopes to open its account in the state after Union ministers Rajiv Chandrasekhar and V. Muraleedharan. Wayanand, a Congress bastion for over two decades, has pitted its state unit president K Surendran against Rahul Gandhi.
For the opposition, Kerala is a big, shining hope. Even as the Left and the Congress compete with each other in the southern state, the victory of either will add to the numbers of the opposition bloc INDIA. Kerala is one of the few states that has never sent a BJP member to Parliament.
With north, west and northeast India saturated, the BJP hopes to expand in the south and east in their quest for 370 seats. The party had won 303 seats in 2019, with the majority coming from the Hindi heartland and new and old bastions, including Gujarat and the Northeast.
However, the Congress has claimed that it would post a much better performance compared to 2019. After the first phase of elections, their claims have become louder, especially in Rajasthan and western Uttar Pradesh. Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Tejashwi Yadav has claimed that INDIA will win all five seats in Bihar.
The elections are being held amid a bitter standoff between the Congress and the BJP. The row was sparked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's comment that the Congress, if voted to power, will redistribute people's personal wealth among the 'infiltrators' and not even spare women's mangalsutras. The Congress has questioned whether the people had to fear for their wealth and mangalsutras in the party's 55 years in power, accusing the BJP of sidestepping issues that matter.
The next phase of elections is scheduled for May 7. The counting of votes will take place on June 4 – three days after the seventh and final election phase on June 1.
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