Voting for Phase 6 of the Lok Sabha elections will be held in 58 constituencies across eight states and Union Territories on May 25. As many as 889 candidates, including 20 for the adjourned poll in Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag-Rajouri seat, will be in fray.
Here are the key candidates to watch out for.
Naveen Jindal (Kurukshetra): The chairman of Jindal Steel and Power Ltd and BJP candidate Naveen Jindal will be locked in a direct contest with Sushil Gupta of the AAP and a scion of the influential Chautala family -- Abhay Singh Chautala. Entering the poll fray after a decade, Jindal, who is eyeing his third win from Kurukshetra. Jindal quit Congress and joined the BJP in March. While in Congress, he represented Kurukshetra between 2004-2014.
Manoj Tiwari (North East Delhi): BJP MP Manoj Tiwari represented the constituency for 10 years now. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Tiwari defeated former Delhi chief minister and then Congress candidate, Sheila Dikshit. Tiwari is the only sitting MP that the BJP has retained in Delhi this election season. This time he is up against Congress's Kanhaiya Kumar.
Bansuri Swaraj (New Delhi): BJP candidate Bansuri Swaraj, daughter of the late Sushma Swaraj, is the party’s youngest candidate in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. An Oxford-taught practicing lawyer in the Supreme Court, Swaraj (40) is up against Somnath Bharti from AAP.
Kanhaiya Kumar (North East Delhi): Former JNU Students' Union president Kanhaiya Kumar will be locking horns with BJP’s Manoj Tiwari who is eyeing his third term from the constituency. It is believed that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi himself backed Kanhaiya’s candidature from North East Delhi.
Maneka Gandhi (Sultanpur): Maneka Gandhi is contesting her second election on a BJP ticket from this constituency. In the 2019 elections, she narrowly defeated SP-BSP alliance candidate Chandrabhadra Singh Sonu. She is up against SP candidate Rambhual Nishad and BSP’s Udraj Verma.
Mehbooba Mufti (Anantnag Rajouri): The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) chief, Mehbooba Mufti, is up against Mian Altaf of the National Conference (NC), and Zafar Iqbal Manhas of the Apni Party in the Anantnag-Rajouri seat. The Anantnag-Rajouri seat is currently a battleground for a three-way contest in the first election after the abrogation of Article 370 and redrawing of its political map.
Sambit Patra (Puri): BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra has been handed a ticket from this constituency for the second time. In 2019, he lost the seat to Biju Janata Dal's Pinaki Misra. The BJP has never won Puri.
Manohar Lal Khattar (Karnal): Manohar Lal Khattar, who was replaced as Haryana CM, is contesting the Lok Sabha election after resigning from Karnal assembly seat. Karnal is seen as one of the better seats for the BJP which its precursor, Jan Sangh, had won for the first time in 1962. Khattar replaced the sitting BJP MP Sanjay Bhatia, who defeated Congress' Kuldeep Sharma by 6,56,142 votes in 2019.- Khattar (70) is up against Haryana Youth Congress chief Divyanshu Budhiraja (30).
Abhijit Gangopadhyay (Tamluk): Former Calcutta High Court judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay is the BJP candidate from this seat. He was the fourth politician in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections to have been served a notice for “undignified” remarks against women. Gangopadhyay is facing Trinamool Congress leader Debangshu Bhattacharya.
Dinesh Lal Yadav 'Nirahua' (Azamgarh): BJP MP Dinesh Lal Yadav “Nirahua” has been entrusted by the party to take on the SP’s Dharmendra Yadav. Dinesh Lal Yadav is a renowned actor from the Bhojpuri film industry and currently serving as an MP from Azamgarh.
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