Lok Sabha elections: A look at key faces in fray in phase 6

The fate of several Union ministers including Radha Mohan Singh, Harshvardhan and Maneka Gandhi, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and Congress leaders Digvijay Singh and Jyotiraditya Scindia will be decided on Sunday in the sixth and penultimate phase of Lok Sabha polls to be held in 59 constituencies in six states and Delhi.

Elections will be held in 14 seats in Uttar Pradesh, 10 seats in Haryana, eights constituencies each in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal, seven seats in Delhi and four in Jharkhand in the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha elections.

NEW DELHI: The fate of several Union ministers including Radha Mohan Singh, Harshvardhan and Maneka Gandhi, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and Congress leaders Digvijay Singh and Jyotiraditya Scindia will be decided on Sunday in the sixth and penultimate phase of Lok Sabha polls to be held in 59 constituencies in six states and Delhi. Elections will be held in 14 seats in Uttar Pradesh, 10 seats in Haryana, eights constituencies each in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal, seven seats in Delhi and four in Jharkhand. Prominent candidates in fray in sixth phase Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh) Key contestants: Digvijay Singh (Congress), Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur (BJP) Main factors and issues: Bhopal has grabbed a lot of attention after the BJP fielded the controversial Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, an accused in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case, against veteran Congress leader Digvijaya Singh. Pragya Thakur, who joined the race for Bhopal almost a month after Digvijaya Singh's candidature was finalised, is no longer just a candidate, but has become an election issue. Many have raised questions over her candidature, wondering if someone who's out on bail in a terror case should be allowed to contest elections. Digvijay Singh peddled the 'soft Hindutva' line by roping in seers, including Computer Baba (Namdeo Das Tyagi) who conducted 'hath yoga' and set afire cow dung cakes while Pragya Thakur highlighted her alleged torture in police custody to win the sympathy of voters in Bhopal, which has been a BJP bastion since 1989. Azamgarh (Uttar Pradesh) Key contestants: Akhilesh Yadav (SP), Dinesh Lal Yadav 'Nirahua' (BJP) Main factors and issues: Considered as a bastion of the Samajwadi Party, Azamgarh is witnessing a Yadav versus Yadav battle. Voters here have elected 18 MPs in 16 general elections and two by-polls. Of the 18 MPs, 12 have been a Yadav candidate. Azamgarh is one of the few parliamentary constituencies that did not get swept away in the 2014 Modi wave and elected Samajwadi Party (SP) patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav as its lawmaker. Caste equation favours Yadavs on the Azamgarh Lok Sabha seat, where the upper castes constitute 2.90 lakh votes, OBC 6.80 lakh, Dalit 4.50 lakh and minorities 3.10 lakh. North East Delhi (Delhi) Key contestants: Manoj Tiwari (BJP), Sheila Dikshit (Congress), Dilip Pandey (AAP) Main factors and issues: North East Delhi constituency has emerged as the prestigious seat for both Congress and the BJP where three-time Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has locked horns with Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari. Also in the fray is AAP's Dilip Pandey, making the contest triangular. Sonipat (Haryana) Key contestants: Bhupinder Singh Hooda (Congress), Ramesh Chander Kaushik (BJP), Digvijay Chautala (JJP), Surender Chhikara (INLD) Main factors and issues: This Jat dominated parliamentary constituency is witnessing a triangular contest. Barring Kaushik, all of the four main contestants belong to the Jat community, which has sizeable votes over 15 lakh. Five out of the nine Assembly segments in this constituency are held by Hooda loyalists, an important factor in determining the pull of the candidate. The JJP candidate, Digvijay Chautala, is heavily banking on the three Assembly segments falling in Jind district. The BJP candidate relies heavily on the urban electorate in Sonipat and Jind assembly segments to prop up his prospects. Sultanpur (Uttar Pradesh) Key contestants: Maneka Gandhi (BJP), Sanjay Singh (Congress) Main factors and issues: Sultanpur is witnessing a close contest as the BJP has fielded Union minister Maneka Gandhi for the seat won by her son Varun Gandhi in 2014 against Sanjay Singh of the Congress. Once a stronghold of the Congress party, the BJP managed to make a dent in Sultanpur parliamentary constituency for the first time in 1991. Since the first Lok Sabha election held in 1951, the Congress has bagged the Sultanpur seat seven times, followed by the Bharatiya Janata Party four times and Bahujan Samaj Party twice. Guna (Madhya Pradesh) Key contestants: Jyotiraditya Scindia (Congress), K.P. Yadav (BJP) Main factors and issues: Scindia is seeking another term from this parliamentary constituency which he has represented since 2002. Guna was one of the two seats in Madhya Pradesh which the Congress could manage to win in 2014 Lok Sabha election. The other was Chhindwara from where Kamal Nath was elected. Yadav was a trusted lieutenant of Scindia till 2018. He switched sides to the BJP earlier this year after the Congress denied him ticket for the bypoll. East Delhi (Delhi) Key contestants: Gautam Gambhir (BJP), Atishi (AAP), Arvinder Singh Lovely (Congress) Main factors and issues: The BJP is relying on Modi's popularity and Gambhir's star value, while the AAP is banking on Atishi's personal connect with the voters and Kejriwal's charisma. The Congress is calling both candidates of the BJP and the AAP as "political tourists" and "outsiders" as they are not from East Delhi. Chandni Chowk (Delhi) Key contestants: Harsh Vardhan (BJP), Jai Prakash Agarwal (Congress), Pankaj Gupta (AAP) Main factors and issues: Traders community holds the key in Chandni Chowk, which houses the city's biggest wholesale markets. The opposition is trying to make the GST, sealing and demonetisation the major issues. Harsh Vardhan is banking on his appeal to all sections of the society along with the respect people have for Prime Minister Narendra Modi while Agarwal is banking on his old connections with local traders community and and a shift of Muslim voters towards Congress. Gupta is hoping to get benefits of the schemes launched by Delhi government and popularity of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. The seven-phase Lok Sabha elections started on April 11 and would conclude on May 19. Counting of votes will take place on May 23. So far, voting has been completed for five of the seven phases. Polling was held on Monday for 51 Lok Sabha seats spread across seven states in the fifth phase. In the first four phases, election was held to 91, 96, 117 and 72 seats on April 11, April 18, April 23, April 29 respectively. Polling for the sixth phase will be held on May 12. Voting for the seventh and last phase will take place on May 19. (With inputs from IANS)