A look at blockbuster fights in Phase 4 of Lok Sabha elections 2019

Uttar Pradesh

Unnao

In the ring: Sakshi Maharaj (BJP), Annu Tandon (Congress), Arun Shankar Shukla (SP)

Quick take: The same candidates contested Unnao in 2014 S. Sitting MP Sakshi Maharaj registered one of the biggest wins in 2014, consolidating the backward class and Dalit vote. Congress has again fielded Annu Tandon, who polled 46% of the votes in 2009, but was relegated to the third position in 2014. The Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party (SP-BSP) alliance has nominated Anna Shukla, an old Mulayam Singh Yadav loyalist.

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2014 result: Sakshi Maharaj (BJP) defeated Anna Shukla (SP) by 310,173 votes.

Farrukhabad

In the ring: Mukesh Rajput (BJP), Salman Khursheed (Congress), Manoj Agarwal (BSP)

Quick take: Former foreign minister Salman Khursheed of the Congress is fighting to salvage his political capital in Farrukhabad. Khursheed, in a shocking outcome, slumped to the fourth place in the 2014 election from the constituency, getting only 95,000 votes. The BJP’s Lodhi strongman Mukhesh Rajput is seeking a second term in a triangular contest. Rajput is up against a rejuvenated Khursheed and new face Manoj Agarwal, who has the combined might of the BSP and SP behind him.

2014 result: Mukesh Rajput (BJP) defeated Rameshwar Yadav (SP) by 150,502 votes.

Etawah

In the ring: Ram Shankar Katheria (BJP), Kamlesh Katheria (SP), Ashok Dohrey (Congress)

Quick take: All main parties have fielded Dalit candidates. BJP has brought Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) pracharak and SC/ST Commission chairman Ram Shankar Katheria from Agra to replace Ashok Dohrey, who is contesting as the Congress candidate. The SP-BSP alliance, which had a combined vote share of 48% as compared to the 46% of BJP in 2014, has fielded Kamlesh Katheria, son of Prem Das Katheria, who won the seat in 2009 and lost in 2014.

2014 result: Ashok Dohrey (BJP) defeated Premdas Katheria (SP) by 164,946 votes.

Kannauj

In the ring: Dimple Yadav (SP), Subrat Pathak (BJP)

Quick take: Dimple Yadav, the wife of SP president Akhilesh Yadav, is contesting the seat for the third time. The Yadav family, which has nurtured the constituency carefully, has not lost Kannauj since 1998. Dimple, however, won the seat only by a whisker in 2014 as BJP matched the SP in every polling booth. The BJP goes into the election with Subrat Pathak hoping he will improve on his 2014 performance. This time, no BSP candidate in the fray. The Congress decided to stay away from Kannauj, too.

2014 result: Dimple Yadav (SP) defeated Subrat Pathak (BJP) by 19,907 votes.

Kanpur

In the ring: Shri Prakash Jaiswal (Congress), Satyadeo Pachauri (BJP), Ram Kumar (SP)

Quick take: Former coal minister Shri Prakash Jaiswal is looking for a fourth term in the Lok Sabha. The BJP has replaced veteran Murali Manohar Joshi with Pachauri, a protégé of his. Pachaur is also a minister in the state cabinet and the RSS face in Kanpur. This is Pachauri’s third Lok Sabha election; on the two previous occasions, he lost to Jaiswal. The SP-BSP alliance has fielded Ram Kumar Nishad, son of former Nishad community strongman Manohar Lal of Unnao.

2014 result: Murali Manohar Joshi (BJP) defeated Shri Prakash Jaiswal (Congress) by 222, 946 votes.

Jhansi

In the ring: Anurag Sharma (BJP), Shivsharan (Congress), Shyam Sundar Singh (SP)

Quick take: The home seat of Union minister Uma Bharti is looking at a triangular contest. BJP candidate and businessman Anurag Sharma belongs to the Brahmin community; SP’s Shyam Sunder Singh is from the dominant Yadav community and the Congress’s Shivsharan is from the backward Kushwaha community. To counter the anger among backward classes, the BJP has directed its leaders belonging to the Lodh and Maurya communities to campaign in Other Backward Class (OBC)-dominated villages.

2014 result: Uma Bharti (BJP) defeated Chandrapal Singh Yadav (SP) by a margin of 190,467 votes.

Rajasthan

Jodhpur

In the ring: Gajendra Singh Shekhawat (BJP), Vaibhav Gehlot (Congress)

Quick take: The seat has become a prestige fight for chief minister Ashok Gehlot, whose son Vaibhav is up against Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat. Gehlot is spending a lot of time in the constituency as is the top brass of the BJP and the RSS. In a close contest, the support of the Jats and Bishois, who dominate the electorate, can be a deciding factor.

2014 result: Gajendra Singh Shekhawat (BJP) defeated Chandresh Kumari (Congress) by 410,051 votes.

Barmer

In the ring: Manvendra Singh (Congress), Kailash Choudhary (BJP)

Quick take: BJP turncoat Manvendra Singh has a strong base among voters of all castes in the constituency, thanks to his father and former Union minister Jaswant Singh. Manvendra had won the seat in 2004 and was BJP MLA in 2013. BJP candidate Kailash Choudhary is a former MLA and is being backed by the RSS.

2014 result: Sonaram Choudhary (BJP) defeated Jaswant Singh (Independent) by 87,000 votes.

West Bengal

Baharampur

In the ring: Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury (Congress), Apurba Sarkar (Trinamool Congress), Krishna Juardar Arya (BJP)

Quick take: Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury not only won the Baharampur constituency four times in a row but also notched up the highest margin among all Congress candidates in the country in 2014. Chowdhury is a bitter and vocal critic of chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who is treating the contest as a personal challenge The Left Front has not nominated any candidate for the seat.

2014 result: Adhir Chowdhury (Congress) defeated Indranil Sen (Trinamool Congress) by 356,567 votes.

Asansol

In the ring: Babul Supriyo (BJP), Moon Moon Sen (Trinamool Congress), Gauranga Chatterjee (CPI-M), Biswarup Mondal (Congress)

Quick take: A prestige seat for the BJP that Babul Supriyo won in 2014 and went on to become a Union minister. The constituency in West Burdwan district is a part of the industrial zone of Durgapur-Asansol, home to coal miners, blue-collar workers in factories, local Bengalis and Hindi-speaking migrant workers from the neighbouring states of Bihar and Jharkhand. Supriyo’s key opponent is Trinamool candidate and former film actor Moon Moon Sen, who won the Bankura Lok Sabha seat in 2014.

2014 result: Babul Supriyo (BJP) defeated Dola Sen (Trinamool Congress) by 70,480 votes.

Bardhaman-Durgapur

In the ring: Mamtaz Sanghamita (Trinamool Congress), S S Ahluwalia (BJP), Ranajit Mukherjee (Congress), Abhas Roy Choudhury (CPI-M)

Quick Take: The nomination of S S Ahluwalia, one of the two BJP candidates to be elected to the Lok Sabha in 2014 from Bengal, for this seat has raised its importance. While the incumbent and Trinamool candidate is depending on the organisational machinery of the ruling party and the personal charisma of chief minister Mamata Banerjee, the BJP candidate, who spent his student years in Asansol and speaks Bengali fluently, is banking on anti-incumbency against the Trinamool Congress.

2014 result: Mamtaz Sanghamita (Trinamool Congress) defeated Saidul Haque (CPI-M) by 107,331 votes.

Bihar

Begusarai

In the ring: Giriraj Singh (BJP), Kanahiya Kumar (CPI) and Tanveer Hassan (RJD)

Quick take: After initial reluctance, BJP’s Giriraj Singh agreed to contest this seat. Singh is the sitting Nawada MP. The election is also important because it will also decide the fate of former Jawaharlal Nehru Students Union leader Kanahiya Kumar, who is running for election as a candidate of the Communist Party of India The contest is triangular because Rashtriya Janata Dal candidate Tanveer Hassan has strong vote base in this Muslim-dominated constituency.

2014 result: Late Bhola Singh (BJP) defeated Tanveer Hassan (RJD) by 8,161 votes.

Ujjiyarpur

In the ring: Nityanand Rai (BJP) , Upendra Kushwaha (RLSP president and former union minister)

Quick Take: It is a prestige battle between BJP state president Nityanand Rai and Rashtriya Lok Samata Party chief Upendra Kushwaha, who is also contesting Karakat, from where he was elected to Lok Sabha in 2014. The stakes are high both for Rai and Kushwaha, a critic of chief minister Nitish Kumar, who left the National Democratic Alliance in the run-up to the general elections.

2014 result: Nityanand Rai (BJP) defeated Ashok Kumar Mehta (RJD) by 60,469 votes.

Odisha

Kendrapara

In the ring: Baijayant ‘Jay’ Panda (BJP), Anubhav Mohanty (BJD), Dharanidhar Nayak(Congress)

Quick take: For Baijayant Panda, the incumbent MP, a win will mean his entrenchment in the BJP. Chief minister Naveen Patnaik is treating the fight with Panda, who left the Biju Janata Dal last year after being suspended from the party, as a personal battle and has fielded popular Odia actor and Rajya Sabha MP Anubhav Mohanty to convert his popularity as a movie star into votes. Patnaik is also banking on the support of women self-help groups, his vote bank.

2014 result: Baijayant ‘Jay’ Panda (BJP) defeated Dharanidhar Nayak (Congress) by 209,300 votes.

Mayurbhanj

In the ring: Debashis Marndi (BJP), Anjani Soren Marndi(JMM), Bisweswar Tudu (BJP)

Quick take: In tribal-dominated Mayurbhanj, Shibu Soren-led Jharkhand Mukti Morcha is looking for a comeback in alliance with the Congress. Soren’s widowed daughter, Anjani Soren Marndi, is the party candidate against BJD’s Marndi, who contested the 2014 election on a JMM ticket. JMM has a base in at least six of the seven assembly constituencies. BJP’s Bisweswar Tudu is expected to get a sizeable number of votes.

2014 result: Rama Chandra Hansda (BJD) defeated Nepole Raghu Murmu (BJP) by 122,866 votes.

Madhya Pradesh

Chhindwara

In the ring: Nathansaha Kawreti (BJP), Nakul Nath (Congress)

Quick Take: Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath represented Chhindwara in the Lok Sabha for nine terms before shifting to state politics. His son Nakul Nath is the candidate this time around. BJP candidate Kawreti is a tribal and a former MLA, and is hoping to cash in on tribal votes.

2014 result: Kamal Nath (Congress) defeated Choudhary Chandrabhan Singh (BJP) by 116,537 votes

Jabalpur

In the ring: Rakesh Singh (BJP), Vivek Tankha (Congress)

Quick Take: Singh and Tankha were also pitted against each other in the 2014 elections, when the former won, riding on the Modi wave. This time, around Tankha is confident because a Congress government has captured power in Madhya Pradesh after a gap of 15 years. Both Singh and Tankha, who is a Rajya Sabha MP, are campaigning on the development plank.

2014 results: Rakesh Singh (BJP) defeated Vivek Tankha (Congress) by 208639 votes

Jharkhand

Lohardaga (ST)

In the ring: Sudershan Bhagat (BJP), Sukhdeo Bhagat (Congress)

Quick take: Sudershan Bhagat, representing the seat since 2009, is facing a tough challenge from former Jharkhand Congress chief Sukhdeo Bhagat, who is the joint candidate of a grand alliance of four parties. Bhagat won in 2014 with just over 6,000 votes in a multi-cornered contest. Lohardaga, a reserved seat for scheduled tribes, has a sizeable tribal Christian population.

2014 result: Sudarshan Bhagat (BJP) defeated Rameshwar Oraon (Congress) by 6,489 votes.

Maharashtra

Mumbai South

In the ring: Arvind Sawant (Shiv Sena), Milind Deora (Congress)

Quick take: Sitting Sena MP Arvind Sawant is facing fight from Congress candidate and party’s Mumbai president Milind Deora for second consecutive time. Deora was sitting MP and union minister when he was defeated in the last polls. The seat faces issues such as infrastructure, slum redevelopment, redevelopment of dilapidated buildings and chawls and is also known as Marathi heartland.

2014 results: Mlind Sawant (Shiv Sena) had defeated Milind Deora (Congress) by a margin of 1,28,564 votes

Mumbai North Central

In the ring: Poonam Mahajan (BJP), Priya Dutt (Congress)

Quick take: In Mumbai North Central constituency, sitting BJP MP Poonam Mahajan is facing tough competition from former MP Priya Dutt. Both the candidates comes from well-known political families as Mahajan is the daughter of senior BJP leader late Pramod Mahajan and Dutt is the daughter of actor and former MP late Sunil Dutt. The constituency’s maps were redrawn in 2007-08 as part of delimitation process. Earlier it had more part of central Mumbai and the seat was with Shiv Sena and former Lok Sabha speaker Manohar Joshi was two-term MP from the seat. He was defeated by Congress’ Eknath Gaikwad in a close contest. Present North Central constituency has some part has a significant part of erstwhile North West constituency then represented by Sunil Dutt.

2014 results: Poonam Mahajan (BJP) had defeated Priya Dutt (Congress) by a margin of 1,86,771 votes

Maval

In the ring: Shrirang Barne (Shiv Sena), Parth Pawar (NCP)

Quick take: Sitting Shiv Sena MP Shrirang Barne is facing tough contest against Parth Pawar, third generation member from NCP chief Sharad Pawar’s family. He is the son of former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, who is Pawar’s nephew. Interestingly, the NCP chief was not keen on allowing Parth to contest general polls Parth but eventually gave up to the family pressure. Since the formation of the seat in 2008 following delimitation, both the attempts made by NCP in 2009 and 2014 to win it were failed. The electoral battle become more interesting after NCP decided to forge alliance with Peasants and Workers Party of India (PWP) that enjoys strong presence in the constituency. In 2014 polls, its candidate Laxman Jagtap was the first runner up who got over 3.54 lakh votes. Barne had defeated him by a margin of 1.57 lakh votes.

2014 results: Shriran Barne (Shiv Sena) had defeated Laxman Jagtap (PWP) by a margin of 1,57,394 votes. NCP candidate Rahul Narvekar was at third position with 1,82,293 votes.