Fiery Hyderabad clash, Akhilesh's quest for 'revenge', Andhra family feud: 10 key contests in Lok Sabha polls phase 4

Akhilesh Yadav, Asaduddin Owaisi and Giriraj Singh are among the high-profile candidates in the fray

Voting has opened for 96 constituencies in 10 states and union territories in the fourth phase of the Lok Sabha elections on May 13, as the general elections reach the half way mark. Votes are also being cast for the Andhra and Odisha assemblies.

As many as 1,717 candidates are in the fray in this phase, which is the third largest round of the Lok Sabh polls.

All Lok Sabha constituencies in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are being voted for in this phase. Thirteen seats in Uttar Pradesh, 11 in Maharashtra, eight each in West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh, five in Bihar, four each in Odisha and  Jharkhand and Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir are going to polls.

Polling is also being held for all 175 assembly seats in Andhra Pradesh where Jagan Mohan Reddy is seeking a second successive term with his YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) is locked in tough contest with Telugu Desam Party.

Odisha will vote for the 147-member assembly in four phases, with 28 seats going to polls in the first phase.

Among the prominent candidates in the fray are Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav (Kannauj, UP), Union ministers Giriraj Singh (Begusarai, Bihar) and Nityanand Rai (Ujiarpur, Bihar), Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury (Baharampur, WB), BJP's Pankaja Munde (Beed, Maharashtra), AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi (Hyderabad, Telangana) and Andhra Pradesh Congress president YS Sharmila (Kadapa).

Union minister Ajay Kumar Mishra Teni, whose son is an accused in the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence case, is eyeing a hat-trick from Kheri (UP), while TMC's Mahua Moitra, who was expelled from Lok Sabha in the wake of cash-for query allegations, is seeking re-election from Krishnanagar in West Bengal.

Phase 4 of Lok Sabha elections: key contests 

Kannauj (Uttar Pradesh): Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav entered the poll fray from the family turf after much deliberation, setting the stage for a showdown with sitting MP and BJP leader Subrat Pathak. Pathak defeated Akhilesh's wife Dimple Yadav in 2019. Akhilesh's decision to contest from the seat is seen as a grudge match as well as a determined effort to reclaim the family seat, which the SP chief describes as a "symbol of our legacy". SP has held the seat from 1998 until 2019 when Pathak managed to snatch a big win by a slender margin of just under 12,000 votes. The loss reverberated through the Yadav clan, marking a turning point in their political fortunes.

Hyderabad (Telangana): The constituency has been a stronghold of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) since 1989. Party chief Asaduddin Owaisi has won the Hyderabad seat since 2004 nu huge margins. This time , he is facing a stiff challenge from BJP's Madhavi Latha. A firebrand, Latha, contesting her first election, launched an aggressive campaign and has come under fire for her alleged communal stance in the Muslim-dominated constituency. She even courted controversy for allegedly making a provocative gesture of shooting an arrow in the direction of a mosque. While Owaisi does have the upper hand, Latha is expected to give a tough fight to the AIMIM chief despite demographic factors stacked against her.

Kadapa (Andhra Pradesh): Family vs family has been a recurring theme in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. YS Sharmila, the Congress's Andhra Pradesh chief, is up against her cousin and sitting MP YS Avinash Reddy. Reddy is part of YSRCP, the party led by Sharmila's brother and chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy. Kadapa has been a stronghold of the YS Reddy family for several decades, with political representation from Jagan Mohan, his father, YS Rajasekhar Reddy, and Vivekananda Reddy. Sharmila's entry not only challenges her cousin but also her brother.

Baharampur (West Bengal): The West Bengal constituency, earlier known as Berhampore, is seeing a high-voltage clash between Congress's Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and TMC's Yusuf Pathan. Chowdhury has had several spats with leaders of Mamata Banerjee's party for several months. TMC blames the Congress's West Bengal chief for the failure of the seat-sharing talks between the two INDIA allies. Baharampur was a Left bastion until it was wrested from the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) by Chowdhury in 1999. Despite its best effort, the TMC had not been able to oust Chowdhury. Its decision to field Pathan is yet another move to snatch Baharampur from the Congress as more than 50 percent of the voters are Muslims.

Krishnanagar (West Bengal): The West Bengal constituency is a contest between two fiery women: Trinamool's Mahua Moitra and BJP’s Amrita Roy. Mahua won in 2019 after defeating BJP's Kalyan Chaubey. However, in a big setback last year, she was expelled from the Lok Sabha on charges of accepting gifts from an industrialist, Darshan Hiranandani, in return for asking questions on his behalf.

Roy is a member of the royal family of Maharaja Krishnachandra Roy. She is known as Rani Ma or Queen Mother of Rajbari and enjoys popularity among the locals due to her family connections. CPM candidate SM Sadi can queer the pitch if he manages to cut into the Trinamool support base of the Muslim community.

Asansol (West Bengal): Trinamool candidate Shatrughan Sinha aka "Bihari Babu" faces BJP's "son of the soil" Surendrajeet Singh Ahluwalia also known as "Sardarji". Actor Sinha wrested the seat from BJP in the 2022 by-election. With around 50 percent residents non-Bengalis, most of them from Bihar, TMC expects Sinha to have a smooth sailing. The BJP has been stressing on the "outsider tag" and diminish Sinha's star value by nominating veteran politician Ahluwalia. Ahluwalia, who was born and brought up in Asansol, has replaced BJP's first choice for the seat - Bhojpuri actor-singer Pawan Singh, who came under criticism following misogynistic posts against Bengali women.

Shahjahanpur (Uttar Pradesh): This UP constituency has witnessed a varied political landscape over the years. The BJP secured victories here in 1998, 2014, and 2019, while the Congress emerged triumphant twice in 1999 and 2004. The Samajwadi Party (SP) clinched this seat only once in 2009. In the last elections, the BJP's Arun Kumar Sagar claimed victory with 58.09 percent votes, defeating BSP's Amar Chand Jauhar, who was the joint candidate of the SP-BSP-RLD alliance. BJP has repeated Sagar while SP has fielded Rajesh Kashyap and BSP candidate is Daudram Verma.

Begusarai (Bihar): Represented by Union minister Giriraj Singh, Begusarai is one of the most crucial Lok Sabha constituencies of Bihar. This general category seat is a stronghold of the Bhumihar caste. Several candidates who have won from Begusarai belong to the Bhumihar caste, including the sitting MP. Singh defeated the then CPI candidate Kanhaiya Kumar by over 4.2 lakh votes in 2019. Awadhesh Kumar Rai (Yadav) of the CPI, which last tasted victory in Begusarai in 1967, will take on Singh in the May 13 election.

Karimnagar (Telangana): BJP has re-nominated Bandi Sanjay Kumar as its candidate from Karimnagar. Kumar faces a stiff challenge from BRS candidate and former MP B Vinod Kumar and Congress's V Rajender Rao in a triangular clash.

Srinagar (J&K): The high-profile seat in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir is seeing a triangular clash between National Conference's Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi, Peoples Democratic Party's Waheed-ur-Rehman Parra and J&K Apni Party's Muhammad Ashraf Mir. NC has dominated the seat over the years, winning 10 of the 13 general election from Srinagar. NC chief Farooq Abdullah represented the Srinagar constituency four times — in 1980, 2009, 2017, and 2019. In 2019, Abdullah won the seat by 70,050 votes, defeating nearest rival JKPDP's Aga Syed Mohsin. However, in 2014, JKPDP's Tariq Hameed Karra beat Abdullah by 42,280 votes. Abdullah regained the seat in the 2017 bypoll after Karra’s resignation.

Polling for next three phases will be held on May 20, May 25 and June 1. Counting of votes is on June 4.