Lok Sabha Elections: What's at stake for BJP, Congress in 5th phase of polling 

Despite comparatively lesser number of seats which go to poll, this phase is crucial for both the Congress and the BJP as in many seats they are in a direct face-off

In the seven-phase long election process to elect members of the 18^th Lok Sabha, four phases have been completed. In the 5^th phase of polling, the voters will elect their representatives for 49 Lok Sabha constituencies. The voting for the Southern states has been completed and this phase would witness elections in 6 states and 2 Union Territories mainly in the Hindi heartland, besides few other states. Despite comparatively lesser number of seats which go to poll, this phase is crucial for both the Congress and the BJP as in many seats they are in a direct face-off.

The BJP would be defending 32 seats with 40.7% votes while its allies would be defending 8 seats with 8.3% votes. Some of the important seats which BJP allies would be defending in this phase are the Sitamarhi Lok Sabha seat in Bihar held by its ally JD(U), the Hajipur Lok Sabha seat in Bihar held by the Lok Jan Shakti Party (LJP) 4 seats of Shiv Sena (Eknath faction).

Clearly, the NDA’s stronghold goes to poll in this phase as it holds 40 of the 49 seats. The Congress seems to be very weak in the phase. It would be defending only the Rae Bareli Lok Sabha seat in UP, a seat which has been a Congress bastion for many decades, previously held by Sonia Gandhi, but being contested by Rahul Gandhi in 2024. He is facing the challenge from Dinesh Pratap Singh of the BJP, who was defeated by Sonia Gandhi in 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Its allies also seem to be weak in the phase, as they are only defending a few seats with a total vote share of 12.4%, which includes the Baramulla Lok Sabha seats in Jammu and Kashmir, held by the JKNC and 3 seats of Shiv Sena (UBT). The Trinmool Congress (AITC) would also be defending its 4 seats in West Bengal, while the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) would be defending its 2 seats, in Odisha.

The prestigious Lok Sabha seat of Amethi in UP, once a strong hold of the Gandhi family, also goes to poll in this phase of election. This seat is likely to witness an interesting battle between the sitting MP, and currently the Minister of Women and Child Development, Smriti Irani and a popular local leader of the Congress Kishori Lal Sharma. Another seat from UP which may be interesting to watch would be the Lucknow Lok Sabha seat as the Union Defense Minister Rajnath Singh is contesting against Samajwadi Party’s candidate Ravidas Mehrotra. Even though Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh has been denied ticket by the BJP from the Kaiserganj Lok Sabha seat, but he would still be contesting a proxy election as his son Karan Bhushan Singh has been nominated from this seat. The announcement of Karan as a candidate from Kaiserganj has been strategic by the BJP after voting in the Jat-dominated constituencies of western UP is over, mainly because Jat community seemed to be unhappy with Brij Bhushan and have protested for long over his conduct.

In the 5^th phase of voting in Maharashtra, polling will take place in 13 Lok Sabha seats and with that the entire state would have voted by the end of the day. The constituency of Mumbai North would witness a contest between Union cabinet minister Piyush Goyal against Bhushan Patil of the Congress. In the constituency of Kalyan, Dr Shrikant Shinde (son of current state CM Eknath Shinde) would be contesting against Vaishali Darekar Rane of Shiv Sena (UBT).

The state of Bihar would see polling in five Lok Sabha constituencies. In Saran the fight is between Rohini Acharya (Lalu Prasad Yadav’s daughter) against sitting MP Rajiv Pratap Rudy of the BJP. The constituency of Hajipur, a family stronghold of Ram Vilas Paswan’s family, would witness the contestation between Chirag Paswan {leader of LJP (Ram Vilas)} of the NDA coalition, against RJD’s Shiv Chandra Ram.

From the sole seat in Jammu and Kashmir, the Baramulla constituency would witness the contest of Omar Abdullah of JKNC against Mir Muhammad Fayaz of the JKPDP.

Of the total seven Lok Sabha seats which goes to poll today in West Bengal, the Hooghly Lok Sabha seat would witness the contest of Locket Chatterjee from the BJP (actress turned politician, and sitting MP), against Rachna Banerjee of the AITC. In the Bongaon Lok Sabha seat, the sitting MP Shantanu Thakur, who belongs to the Matua Dalit community is contesting the election. It is important to note that the BJP has worked hard to make inroads among the Matua community, a new vote bank of the BJP in West Bengal since the 2021 assembly elections.

In Odisha, of the five Lok Sabha seats which goes to poll, Bolangir constituency would witness a triangular contest between an actor turned politician, Manoj Mishra of the Congress, Sangeeta Kumari of the BJP and Surendra Singh Bhoi of the BJD.

In the Lok Sabha constituency of Ladakh, the BJP has refused to field its popular candidate Jamyang Tsering Namgyal, and instead fielded Tashi Gyalson against Congress’s Tsering Namgyal (a different candidate and not Jamyang), which might result in some confusion amongst the voters.