Lok Sabha election 2024: 10 key faces in Phase 5

Lok Sabha election 2024: The fate of 695 candidates, including some ministers, will be sealed on May 20.

The fate of over 600 candidates, including some ministers, will be sealed in the fifth phase of the Lok Sabha elections on May 20. The voting will take place in Maharashtra, Bihar, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Ladakh, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal across 49 constituencies.

Here are the key candidates to watch out for.

Rahul Gandhi (Rae Bareli): A three-time MP from Amethi, Rahul Gandhi lost the seat to BJP's Smriti Irani in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, he chose Rae Bareli as his second seat after Wayanad. He is up against BJP’s Dinesh Pratap Singh who is credited for reducing Sonia Gandhi’s victory margin by half in Rae Bareli in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Smriti Irani (Amethi): Smriti Irani, the Women and Child Development Minister, is the BJP candidate from this constituency. She defeated Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in 2019 by a margin of over 55,000 votes from Amethi. As Rahul Gandhi chooses to contest from Rae Bareli, the Congress has pitted Kishori Lal Sharma against Irani. Sharma, hailing from Ludhiana, spent over 40 years managing the Amethi seat.

Piyush Goyal (Mumbai North): Union Commerce minister and BJP leader Piyush Goyal is set to make his Lok Sabha poll debut from this seat. He is facing Congress leader Bhushan Patil. Patil, vice president of the Congress’ Mumbai unit, had contested the 2009 Lok Sabha election from Borivali.

Rachana Banerjee (Hooghly): West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee fielded Rachana Banerjee as the Trinamool Congress candidate from the Hooghly seat. Rachana Banerjee, the host of the popular Bengali television show ‘Didi No. 1’, is pitted against BJP candidate Locket Chatterjee.

Rajnath Singh (Lucknow): Defence minister Rajnath Singh is seeking a third term as MP from Lucknow which is a BJP stronghold. In the 2019 election, Singh defeated Samajwadi Party’s Poonam Sinha while he defeated Congress candidate Rita Bahuguna Joshi in 2014. The Samajwadi Party has fielded Ravidas Mehrotra from this seat.

Locket Chatterjee (Hooghly): Locket Chatterjee is the sitting MP from Hooghly. She is pitted against Tirnamool candidate Rachana Banerjee. Chatterjee defeated Trinamool candidate Ratna De in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls by clinching a landslide victory with a margin of 73,362 votes from Hooghly.

Rohini Acharya (Saran): RJD's national president Lalu Prasad's daughter Rohini Acharya will lock horns with BJP candidate and former Union Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy. Acharya made headlines when she donated one of her kidneys to the ailing RJD veteran in 2022. Before the delimitation exercise, Saran was known as Chapra Lok Sabha constituency, which Rudy represented in 1996 as well as 1999.

Ujjwal Nikam (Mumbai North Central ): Renowned lawyer Ujjwal Nikam of the BJP and Mumbai Congress president Varsha Gaikwad will lock horns in this seat. Nikam was the special public prosecutor in the case related to the November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai. He also handled the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case.

Arvind Sawant (Mumbai South): Arvind Sawant of Uddhav Thackeray’s Sena faction is aiming for a hat trick. He is facing Yamini Jadhav of the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena seeking to storm Sawant’s bastion. Sawant has served this constituency as an MP since 2014. He briefly served as the Union Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises in 2019.

Chirag Paswan (Hajipur): Chirag Paswan of the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) is riding high on his father late Ram Vilas Paswan’s legacy from the Hajipur (SC) constituency. Chirag faces Shiv Chandra Ram, the most prominent local Scheduled Caste face of the RJD. Ram Vilas Paswan won from Hajipur Lok Sabha seat eight times but in 2019 his brother Pashupati Kumar Paras became an MP from this seat.