7-Part Lok Sabha Election Ends In the present day With PM Modi’s Varanasi In Focus

New Delhi:

The seventh and ultimate section of the 2024 Lok Sabha election begins immediately.

Fifty-seven seats throughout seven states – 13 in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, 9 in Bengal, eight in Bihar, six in Odisha, 4 in Himachal Pradesh, and three in Jharkhand, in addition to Chandigarh – will full a mammoth train that started 55 days in the past – on April 19.

Forward of this section of voting ex-Prime Minister Manmohan Singh launched a ultimate assault on the BJP, writing a letter urging voters to profit from a “ultimate likelihood to make sure our democracy and Structure are protected against repeated assaults by a despotic regime”.

PM’s Varanasi Bastion

A lot of the main target on this section might be on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s seat of Varanasi in UP, which he’s hoping to win for a 3rd straight time. 

Mr Modi romped to victory in 2019 with practically 6.8 lakh votes and greater than 63 per cent of the vote share. He faces the Congress’ Ajay Rai.

The Prime Minister filed his nomination on Might 14 accompanied by a phalanx of senior leaders from the BJP and its companions, together with celebration boss JP Nadda and Residence Minister Amit Shah, in addition to Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his Meghalaya counterpart Conrad Sangma. This was after a flashy six km roadshow the night earlier than.

READ | PM Recordsdata Varanasi Nomination, Then A Huge Present Of Power

Mr Rai has contested every of the previous three elections from the temple city; the previous two as a Congress chief and the 2009 ballot as a member of Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Celebration.

His greatest return was in 2019 – 1.5 lakh votes and round 14 per cent of the vote share.

Hindus make up round 75 per cent of Varanasi’s demographic and Muslims 20 per cent. 

An estimated 10 per cent are from Scheduled Tribes whereas 0.7 are from Scheduled Castes. The agricultural-urban break up of the inhabitants is 65 to 35 per cent.

Away from Varanasi, the highlight might be break up between Punjab and Bengal.

Battle For Punjab

There’s an intriguing AAP vs Congress vs BJP battle in Punjab. The AAP and Congress are, on paper, a part of the INDIA opposition bloc and are contesting as allies in neighbouring Delhi.

In Punjab, nonetheless, the 2 are ‘enemies’, an odd state of affairs replicated in Bengal, the place the Congress and the Trinamool are rivals regardless of being INDIA members.

The ‘pleasant fireplace’ contests have been criticised by the BJP, which has mentioned the bloc’s failure to agree seat-share offers underlines its unstable nature and makes it a poor selection.

The battle for Punjab is sophisticated by the Akali Dal – a former BJP ally that walked out over farmers’ protests from 2020 that proceed to simmer – preventing independently too.

In 2019 the Congress – then led by ex-Chief Minister Amarinder Singh – bought eight seats. 

The Akalis and BJP (then allies) bought two every and the AAP bought one. 

Quick-forward three years and the AAP thumped the Congress within the state ballot, successful 92 of 117 seats. A faction-ridden Congress bought simply 18, the Akalis three and the BSP bought one.

Considerably, the BJP contested 73 and received simply two. This was in opposition to the backdrop of farmers’ protests, which rumbles on to at the present time, suggesting it would wrestle this time too.

Rumble In Bengal

Solely 9 of Bengal’s 42 seats will vote immediately. Nevertheless, these embrace the celebrated Kolkata North and South seats and Diamond Harbour, which was received in 2014 and 2019 by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee.

Diamond Harbour was beforehand a CPIM bastion; the celebration held it from 1967 to 2004.

The Kolkata seats had been additionally received by the Trinamool.

The South seat is Ms Banerjee’s bastion, which she held from 1991 until 2011; this was when she was elected because the MLA from Bhabinipur and give up her MP publish to grow to be chief minister.