With the finish line of the Lok Sabha polls in sight, the sixth and penultimate phase will see 58 seats across eight states and Union Territories (UTs) vote on Saturday. By the end of this phase, a total of 486 of the 543 Lok Sabha seats will have completed polling, with just 57 seats left for the seventh phase. On Saturday, all 10 seats in Haryana, the seven seats in Delhi and the final of the five seats in Jammu and Kashmir (voting in Anantnag-Rajouri was moved from the third to the sixth phase) will finish voting.
In 2019, the parties constituting the Opposition INDIA bloc and the ruling NDA won five and 45 of these 58 seats, respectively. The BJP alone won 40 of these constituencies. While the Congress did not win a single of these seats, the Trinamool Congress (TMC), National Conference (NC) and Samajwadi Party (SP), now in the INDIA bloc, were among the winners, apart from the unaligned Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Biju Janata Dal (BJD).
In terms of vote share, the parties that constitute NDA received 51.36% of the votes compared to the 28.66% vote share of the INDIA bloc parties.
In 2014, the NDA won 39 of these seats and the INDIA bloc parties 11, with eight going to other parties.
The candidates
A total of 889 candidates are in the fray on Saturday. The BSP has fielded the most candidates at 54, followed by the BJP at 51, the Bengal-based Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist) at 27, and the Congress at 25. With all 10 seats in Haryana and seven seats in Delhi voting on Saturday, they have the most candidates in this phase, at 223 and 162, respectively. Uttar Pradesh’s 14 seats in this phase have 162 candidates, followed by 91 in four Jharkhand seats.
Of the 183 candidates with pending criminal cases, Uttar Pradesh has the most, at 38, followed by Jharkhand at 28 and Haryana at 27. Ranchi in Jharkhand and North East Delhi have the most candidates with cases, at 10 and 7, respectively. There are also 141 candidates, or 16% of the total, with serious criminal cases. Among the major parties, the BJP has the most candidates with criminal cases at 28, or 55% of its candidates in this phase, while the AAP and RJD are among those with 100% of their candidates facing pending cases.
PARTY-WISE CANDIDATES WITH CRIMINAL CASES
BJP: 28 (55% of all party candidates)
SP: 9 (75%)
Congress: 8 (32%)
BSP: 7 (13%)
AAP: 5 (100%)
TMC: 4 (44%)
RJD: 4 (100%)
BJD: 2 (33%)
Of the 343 crorepati candidates, Haryana has the most at 102, followed by Delhi at 68 and Uttar Pradesh at 59. Among the parties, the BJP has the most crorepati candidates in this phase at 48, or 94% of the party’s candidates in this phase, followed by the BSP at 23 or 43% and the Congress at 20 or 80%.
RICHEST CANDIDATES
Naveen Jindalcontesting from Haryana’s Kurukshetra (BJP) | Assets: Rs 1,241.48 crore
Sanrupt Misracontesting from Odisha’s Cuttack (BJD) | Assets: Rs 482.21 crore
Sushil Guptacontesting from Haryana’s Kurukshetra (AAP) | Assets: Rs 169.58 crore
YOUNGEST AND OLDEST
Youngest: Five candidates aged 25, including 1 each from SP and BSP
Oldest: Two 79-year-old Congress candidates, Mahender Pratap Singh in Haryana’s Faridabad and Jai Prakash Agarwal in Delhi’s Chandni Chowk
The key battlegrounds in Phase 6
HARYANA
Total seats: 10
Total electors: 1.98 crore
First-time voters: 3.64 lakh
DELHI
Total seats: 7
Total electors: 1.47 crore
First-time voters: 2.43 lakh
JAMMU AND KASHMIR
Total seats: 5 (1 seat in Phase 6)
Total electors: 87.69 lakh
First-time voters: 3.4 lakh
Uttar Pradesh
Total seats: 80 (14 in Phase 6)
OTHER STATES AND UTs GOING TO POLLS
Bihar: 8 seats (Gopalganj, Maharajganj, Paschim Champaran, Purvi Champaran, sheoharSiwan, Vaishali, Valmiki Nagar)
Jharkhand: 4 seats (Dhanbad, Giridih, Jamshedpur, Ranchi)
Odisha: 6 seats (Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Dhenkanal, Keonjhar, Puri, Sambalpur)
West Bengal: 8 seats (Bankura, Bishnupur, Ghatal, Jhargram, Kanthi, Medinipur, Purulia, Tamluk)
5 CONTESTS TO WATCH OUT FOR
Anantnag-Rajouri, J&K: Former CM and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti vs former MLA Mian Altaf Ahmad (NC) vs Apni Party vice president Zafar Iqbal Khan Manhas | 2019 winner: NC
Karnal, Haryana: Former CM Manohar Lal Khattar (BJP) vs youth leader Divyanshu Budhiraja (Cong) vs Devender Kadian (JJP) | 2019 winner: BJP
Sultanpur, UP: Sitting MP and former Union minister Maneka Gandhi (BJP) vs former MLA Ram Bhual Nishad (SP) vs Udraj Verma (BSP) | 2019 winner: BJP
Tamluk, West Bengal: Former Calcutta High Court judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay vs TMC spokesperson Debangshu Bhattacharya vs lawyer Sayan Banerjee (CPM) | 2019 winner: TMC
New Delhi: Lawyer and late Union Minister Sushma Swaraj‘s daughter Bansuri Swaraj (BJP) vs lawyer and MLA Somnath Bharti (AAP) | 2019 winners: BJP
