Lok Sabha Elections 2024 — Varanasi To Thiruvananthapuram: Key Seats Set To Witness High-Voltage Contest
The Lok Sabha polls are set to witness several high-profile electoral battles, starring veterans and debutants, formidable opponents and unlikely contestants.
Lok Sabha Elections 2024: The Election Commission announced the schedule for the Lok Sabha elections in 2024 on Saturday. As per the schedule, the general assembly polls will be conducted from April 19 to June 1, 2024. The Lok Sabha elections are slated to be held in seven phases. The counting of votes for the 18th Lok Sabha elections will be held on June 4.
The polls are set to witness several high-profile electoral battles, starring veterans and debutants, formidable opponents and unlikely contestants.
Varanasi To Thiruvananthapuram: Here Are Some Key Seats
Varanasi
In Varanasi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to contest the upcoming polls for the third time. In 2014, he defeated AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal and won against the Samajwadi Party's Shalini Yadav in 2019. The Congress is yet to announce its candidate from the high-profile constituency.
In 2019, the grand old party fielded Ajay Rai, also its candidate from the constituency in 2014. Before Modi, the Varanasi seat was held by BJP veteran Murli Manohar Joshi.
Wayanad
In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Wayanad constituency in Kerala will witness a contest between Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and CPI leader Annie Raja. She is a women’s rights activist. Gandhi is seeking a second term from Wayanad. The contest has aroused public interest, particularly since both the Congress and CPI are members of the I.N.D.I.A bloc.
In 2019, the former Congress chief was elected from the Wayanad constituency after he defeated P P Suneer of the CPI by an impressive 4.31 lakh votes. Annie Raja, general secretary of the party’s National Federation of Indian Women, is making her debut in the Lok Sabha elections.
Amethi
Amethi, once a bastion of the Congress family, has seen fierce contests in the last two Lok Sabha elections. While the BJP's Smriti Irani, who defeated and wrested the seat from Rahul Gandhi in 2019, is seeking re-election from the constituency, the Congress has not yet announced its candidate from Amethi.
Rahul Gandhi represented Amethi in Parliament from 2004 until 2019. The seat was earlier represented by his uncle Sanjay Gandhi, his father Rajiv Gandhi, and later, his mother Sonia Gandhi. This will be Smriti Irani's third Lok Sabha election from the constituency. In 2014, she made her LS poll debut but lost to Rahul Gandhi.
Thiruvananthapuram
In Thiruvananthapuram, sitting MP and former Union minister Shashi Tharoor is seeking re-election from the constituency for a fourth consecutive term. He will be up against BJP leader and Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who is making his Lok Sabha debut and is looking to open the saffron party's account in Kerala.
The other prominent leader in the contest is CPI's Pannyan Raveendran, who won the elections from the constituency in 2005.
Baharampur
The Baharampur Lok Sabha seat in West Bengal is going to be a key seat in the upcoming polls. It is considered a Congress stronghold and is currently held by its Lok Sabha leader, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury. The Trinamool Congress has fielded former cricketer Yusuf Pathan from the constituency against him.
The West Bengal Congress unit president, Chowdhury, has represented Baharampur five times as an MP since he was first elected from the seat in 1999. He is gearing up to seek a sixth term in the constituency. The grand old party has not yet announced its candidate for the seat.
NEW DELHI
The New Delhi constituency will witness a contest between the BJP's Bansuri Swaraj, daughter of late Union Minister Sushma Swaraj, and the Aam Aadmi Party's Somnath Bharti. With the Congress and the AAP contesting the Lok Sabha polls in alliance in the national capital, the contest in the high-profile constituency has acquired added significance and urgency.
In a big move, the saffron party has replaced two-time MP and Union minister of state Meenakshi Lekhi from this seat. The AAP has fielded Malviya Nagar MLA Bharti from the seat.
Rajnandgaon Lok Sabha Seat
In Chhattisgarh, the Congress has fielded its former chief minister Bhupesh Baghel from the Rajnandgaon Lok Sabha seat in Chhattisgarh, a BJP bastion for more than three decades and seen as the turf of its former three-time CM Raman Singh. He is locked in a contest with the party's sitting MP, Santosh Pandey.
The BJP hasn't lost this seat since 2009. The grand old party has put one of its strong candidates forward in an attempt to break the convention and win from the BJP's stronghold.
Churu
In Rajasthan's Churu, the Congress has fielded Rahul Kaswan, who has been a two-time MP from this seat. He is pitted against paralympic champion Devendra Jhajharia, who will contest the election from BJP. Padma Bhushan javelin thrower Jhajharia is a two-time Paralympic gold medalist and a one-time silver medalist. Kaswan resigned from the BJP last week and has been fielded by the saffron party from the same seat.
Kaswan became the youngest Lok Sabha member from the state at the age of 37 when he won the 2014 general elections by defeating the Bahujan Samaj Party’s Abhinesh Maharshi. He had won with a record margin of 2.94 lakh votes in 2014, which was the highest-ever in Churu Lok Sabha constituency. He was the immediate successor of his father, Ram Singh Kaswan, who represented the seat in Lok Sabha for four terms.
West Delhi Seat
In West Delhi, Congress leader and former MP Mahabal Mishra is in the fray again, but as an AAP candidate. The seat went to the AAP in alliance with the Congress. He was elected as a Congress MP from West Delhi in 2009 by defeating BJP's Jagdish Mukhi.
The saffron party has replaced sitting MP Pravesh Verma and has fielded former South Delhi mayor Kamaljeet Sehrawat. In 2019, Verma won this seat with the highest margin of 578,000 votes among all seven Lok Sabha seats of Delhi.
Chhindwara
The Chhindwara constituency has been Congress veteran and nine-time MP Kamal Nath's stronghold for more than four decades.
Thrissur
In Kerala's Thrissur, K Muralidharan, Congress MP from Vatakara in Kerala, has been fielded from Thrissur this time. This comes days after Muralidharan's sister Padmaja Venugopal joined the BJP. Muraleedharan and Padmaja are the children of late chief minister K Karunakaran.
On the other hand, the saffron party has fielded actor-turned politician Suresh Gopi from Thrissur. The CPI had fielded VS Sunil Kumar, the former Agriculture minister, from the seat.
Shivamogga Lok Sabha Seat
The Shivamogga Lok Sabha seat in Karnataka is considered the fortress of former chief minister B S Yediyurappa's family. BJP senior leader and OBC face K S Eshwarappa is set to contest as an independent candidate against party veteran B S Yediyurappa's son B Y Raghavendra for the Shivamogga seat. This follows his son K E Kantesh not getting a party ticket to contest the Haveri Lok Sabha seat.
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