Elections 2019: 51 Lok Sabha seats go to polls in 5th phase on May 6

New Delhi Nearly nine crore voters will decide the fate of 674 candidates including political bigwigs Rajnath Singh Sonia Gandhi Rahul Gandhi and Smriti Irani in the fifth phase of polling on Monday in 51 Lok Sabha constituencies in seven statesThe stakes are high for the ruling BJP and its allies as it had swept 40 of these seats in 2014 leaving just two for the Congress and the rest for other opposition parties such as the Trinamool Congress sevenVoting will take place in 14 seats in Uttar Pradesh 12 in Rajasthan seven seats each in West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh five in Bihar and four in Jharkhand In Jammu and Kashmir polling will take place in Ladakh constituency and Pulwama and Shopian districts of Anantnag seatThe Election Comission has set up 94000 polling stationsbooths and made elaborate security arrangements In the fifth and smallest phase total 875 crore voters will decide the fate of 674 candidatesWith this phase election will be over in 424 seats and polling in the remaining 118 seats will be held on May 12 and 19The fifth phase of polling in 14 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh will see a clash of titans including Union ministers Rajnath Singh and Smriti Irani UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Congress president Rahul GandhiThe BJP had bagged 12 of these seats in 2014 with the Congress winning Sonia Gandhis Rae Bareli and Rahul Gandhis Amethi the only two constituencies where the Congress succeeded out of the 80 in the entire stateThe Bahujan Samaj Party BSP is contesting on five seats Dhaurahra Sitapur Mohanlalganj Fatehpur and Kaisarganj Its ally Samajwadi Party SP is fighting for seven seats Lucknow Banda Kaushambi Barabanki Faizabad Bahraich and GondaIn Amethi and Rae Bareli the SPBSP alliance has not put up any candidate leaving the two constituencies for the CongressUnion Home Minister Rajnath Singh is seeking reelection from Lucknow while his colleague at the Centre Smriti Irani is again taking on Rahul Gandhi in AmethiTwo former Olympians one former IAS and one former IPS officer and two seers are among the 134 candidates whose fate will be decided by voters in Rajasthans 12 Lok Sabha seats on Monday After this phase polling will come to an end in the desert stateFormer Olympians Rajyawardhan Rathore BJP and Krishna Poonia Congress have locked horns in the Jaipur Rural seat Rathore in a Union ministerIn Bikaner Union minister and former IAS officer Arjun Ram Meghwal BJP is facing a tough fight from his cousin and Congress candidate Madangopal Meghwal a former IPS officer Two seers Sumedhanand Saraswati and Baba Balaknath are contesting the polls from Sikar and Alwar respectivelyIn the seven Lok Sabha constituencies spread across three districts in West Bengal it is a fourcornered contest between the Trinamool Congress BJP Congress and the CPIM The Trinamool had won all the seven seats in 2014The Bangaon Lok Sabha seat will witness an interesting battle between sitting MP Mamata Bala Thakur of the Trinamool and her nephew Shantanu Thakur of the BJP They hail from the numerically strong Matua community which both parties are trying to wooOf the five seats in Bihar Hajipur and Saran are considered pocket boroughs of the Lok Janshakti Party LJP of Ram VilasPaswan and the RJD of Lalu Prasad respectively The other three constituencies are Muzaffarpur Sitamarhi and Madhubani Both Paswan a Union minister and Prasad serving jail term in fodder scam cases are not in the fray but their parties are making allout efforts to retain their influenceIn the four seats in Jharkhand Hazaribagh Koderma Ranchi and Khunti polling will be held between 7 am and 4 pm Voting ends two hours before the scheduled end in other constituencies due to security reasons as some areas are affected by LeftWing ExtremismWhile Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha BJP is seeking reelection from Hazaribag former chief minister and BJP candidate Arjun Munda is taking on Kalicharan Munda of the Congress in the Khunti constituencyThis will be the second phase of polling in Madhya Pradesh the first phase having been held on April 29 These seven constituencies Tikamgarh Damoh Khajuraho Satna Rewa Hoshangabad and Betul were won by the BJP in 2014The Congress which came to power in the state in December last year after 15 years hopes to carry forward the winning momentum while the BJP hopes to repeat its 2014 showingFormer chief minister and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti is pitted against state Congress president G A Mir in the Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency where polling is being held in three phases due to security reasonsIn Ladakh there are four candidates in the fray Tsering Namgyal of the BJP Rigzin Spalbar of the Congress and two IndependentsElection to 542 Lok Sabha seats is being conducted in seven phases between April 11 and May 19 An election in Vellore constituency in Tamil Nadu has been cancelled following excess use of money power Results will be declared on May 23Catch up on all the latest 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