Lok Sabha Elections 2019: Voting for sixth phase on May 12; Key candidates, facts & figures and more

Counting for all the seven phases will be conducted on 23 May.

Indian voters queue at a polling station to cast their ballots. FILE PIC/AFP.

New Delhi: Voting for the penultimate sixth phase of Lok Sabha elections will be held in 59 constituencies on May 12. Here is a look at some key statistics from the phase 6 of national polls.

Elections – Sixth Phase

Date of voting for the sixth phase – May 12, 2019

Number of seats going for polls – 59 seats

• 10.86 percent of total Lok Sabha constituency going for polls in the sixth phase

Number of states going for polls in the sixth phase – Seven states

Voters’ turnout in the sixth phase in 2014 – 64.21 percent

Number of candidates in the sixth phase in 2019 – 979 candidates

Number of female candidates – 83 (9%) female candidates are contesting in the Lok Sabha Phase 6 elections.

Number of total voters – 10,16,47,624  (10.16 crore)

Number of polling booths – 113167 (1.13 lakh)

Winner in 2014 – 59 seats in the sixth phase • BJP – 44 seats • Apna Dal (ally of NDA) – 1 seat • LJP (ally of NDA) – 1 seat • Congress – 2 seats • INLD – 2 seats • SP – 1 seat • Trinamool – 8 seats Analysis of the sixth phase Predominantly BJP seats – BJP had won 44 seats (75 percent) out of 59 seats in 2014 that is going for polls in the sixth phase

No tickets to 19 sitting BJP MPs – Out of 44 MPs in this phase, BJP has not given tickets to 19 MPs.

Colours in Delhi elections – All the seven seats of Delhi are going for polls in the sixth phase. The contestants in Delhi are from different walks of life. Doctor (Harshvardhan - BJP), Bhojpuri Singer and actor (Manoj Tiwari – BJP), Cricketer (Gautam Gambhir - BJP), Supreme Court Lawyer (Meenakshi Lekhi – BJP), Sufi Singer (Hansraj Hans - BJP), Boxer (Vijendra Singh - Congress), Engineer and IT Professional (Pankaj Gupta - AAP), Chartered Accountant (Raghav Chadha - AAP), IT expert who had worked in Hong Kong (Dilip Pandey - AAP) and businessman (Brijesh Goyal - AAP)

Who are in fray from UP – Former UP CM and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, a cabinet minister in Modi government (Maneka Gandhi) and two cabinet ministers in Yogi government (Rita Bahuguna Joshi and Mukut Bihari Verma) are contesting.

Is Maneka Gandhi third time lucky? – Maneka Gandhi is a seven-time Lok Sabha member. But in the last three elections, she has taken to three different constituencies. In 2009, she was elected from Aonla in UP. Maneka changed her seat in 2014 and won from Pilibhit. In 2019, she is contesting from Sultanpur. Will she be lucky for the third time despite changing her constituency?

‘Mother of all poll battles’ in Hisar Parliament seat - Congress candidate Bhavya Bishnoi (third generation - son of Kuldeep Bishnoi and grand son of Bhajan Lal), BJP candidate Brijendra Singh (Great grandson of prominent farmer leader Chotu Ram and son of Union Minister Birender Singh) and Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) candidate Dushyant Chautala (grand son of Om Prakash Chautala and great grand son of Chaudhary Devi Lal) are contesting

Richest Politician Brother - Dushyant Chautala (Assets – Rs. 76 crore) and Digvijay Chautala (Assets – Rs. 53 crore) from Hisar and Sonepat respectively. The assets worth of the brother politician is Rs. 129 crore.

Richest candidate of 6^th phase - With assets worth over Rs. 374 crores, Congress candidate from Guna Jyotiraditya Scindia is the richest candidate contesting in Lok Sabha sixth phase elections.

Seats that have sent PM – Phulpur and Allahabad constituencies have given PM to India that is going for polls in this phase. India’s first PM Jawaharlal Nehru was elected from Phulpur while his successor Lal Bahadur Shastri was elected from Allahabad.

Bhopal parliamentary constituency - The Bhopal constituency is a BJP citadel as the party has not lost the seat since 1989. The Congress had last won the seat in 1984. Former CM of Madhya Pradesh Digvijaya Singh of Congress is fighting battle against Sadhvi Pragya Thakur who is also accused of Malegaon blast.

Digvijay Singh – The former CM of Madhya Pradesh hasn’t contested elections since 2003. The last Lok Sabha he contested was in 1991 that is 28 years ago.

Kirti Azad – Kirti Azad is a Congress candidate from Dhanbad. In his entire political career, this is the third time he has changed constituency. He was earlier BJP MLA from Delhi’s Gole Market seat. Later, he became BJP MP from Darbhanga. This year he joined Congress party.

Red Alert Constituencies - 34 out of 59 constituencies are red alert constituencies in the sixth phase. (Red alert constituencies are those constituencies where 3 or more contesting candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves)

Haryana

Dynasts from all parties in Haryana - Grandchildren of four former chief ministers, two great grandsons and sons of political bigwigs are trying their luck in Haryana in different seats.

Apart from Hisar which is mentioned above, three Chautala grandsons are contesting elections.

Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) the breakaway faction from the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD)

Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), has entered into an alliance with Dushyant Chautala’s Jannayak Janta Party (JJP)

Hisar MP Dushyant Chautala, along with younger brother Digvijay and father Ajay, broke off from INLD and formed the JJP in December 2018.

JJP has fielded Dushyant Chautala and Digvijay Chautala from Hisar and Sonepat respectively,

Arjun Chautala, son of Abhay Chautala, is the INLD candidate from Kurukshetra constituency.

 Congress has fielded Shruti Chaudhary from Bhiwani-Mahendargarh constituency. She is granddaughter of Bansi Lal, former CM of Haryana. Her mother Kiran Chaudhary is also MLA in the state.

Rao Inderjit Singh, a Union Minister and son of former Haryana Chief Minister Rao Birender Singh, is a BJP candidate from Gurgaon. He is pitted against Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Samadhi Ajay Yadav of Congress party

Father-son duo - Bhupender Singh Hooda, a former Haryana Chief Minister, contesting from Sonepat constituency and his son Deepender Singh Hooda contesting from Rohtak.

Daughter of four-time Sirsa MP Dalbir Singh, Rajya Sabha MP Kumari Selja is contesting from Ambala seat as Congress candidate.

The Jat-dominated seats are Rohtak, Sonipat, Bhiwani and Hisar.

West Bengal

Out of eight seats going for polls in West Bengal, four seats – Jhargram (ST – 28 percent), Medinipur (ST – 16 percent), Purulia (ST – 20 percent) and Bankura (ST – 20 percent) are tribal dominated constituencies

The tribal belt, however, had been a traditional stronghold of Left parties

In the last panchayat elections, the BJP shocked Trinamool with a saffron shift in many panchayats of tribal belt.

Uttar Pradesh

In sixth phase of elections in Uttar Pradesh, BJP is facing toughest battle against BSP-SP alliance

BJP had won 13 seats out of 14 seats in 2014. The only seat that it couldn’t won was Azamgarh where Mulayam Singh Yadav wrested the seat despite ‘Modi wave’

If the votes of 2014 are taken into account, then BSP-SP combination can outnumber BJP in all seats barring perhaps Pratapgarh, where Apna Dal (alliance of NDA) got more votes than the combined votes polled by SP and BSP candidates.

Prominent faces in the sixth round

Delhi

East Delhi

• BJP – Gautam Gambhir
• Congress – Arvinder Singh Lovely
• AAP – Atishi Marlena

Chandni Chowk

• BJP – Harshvardhan
• Congress – JP Agrawal
• AAP – Pankaj Gupta

North East Delhi

• BJP – Manoj Tiwari
• Congress – Sheela Dikshit
• AAP – Dilip Pandey

New Delhi

• BJP – Meenakshi Lekhi
• Congress – Ajay Maken
• AAP – Brijesh Goyal

North West Delhi

• BJP – Hansraj Hans
• Congress – Rajesh Lilothia
• AAP – Gugan Singh

West Delhi

• BJP – Pravesh Verma
• Congress – Mahabal Mishra
• AAP – Balbir Singh Jakhar

South Delhi

• BJP – Ramesh Bidhuri
• Congress – Bijender Singh
• AAP – Raghav Chaddha

Haryana

Hisar

• BJP – Brijendra Singh
• Congress – Bhavya Bishnoi
• JJP – Dushyant Chautala

Ambala

• Congress – Kumari Selja
• BJP – Ratanlal Kataria

Sonipat

• Congress – Bhupinder Singh Hooda
• JJP – Digvijay Chautala

  Counting for all the seven phases will be conducted on 23 May.