Today is the final phase of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. I urge all those voting in this phase to vote in record numbers. Your one vote will shape India’s development trajectory in the years to come. I also hope first time voters vote enthusiastically.– Chowkidar Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 19, 2019
Chandigarh: Congress MP Candidate from Chandigarh, Pawan Kumar Bansal casts his vote at booth no 228, Government Model High School, Sector 28 C. #LokSabhaElections2019pic.twitter.com/2nlTdGNfQW– ANI (@ANI) May 19, 2019
Bihar: Union Minister and BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad casts his vote at booth no. 77 in Patna Women’s College. pic.twitter.com/rH9HwBEiVn– ANI (@ANI) May 19, 2019
West Bengal: CM Mamata Banerjee’s nephew & TMC leader, Abhishek Banerjee casts his vote at polling booth no. 208 in South Kolkata Parliamentary Constituency. pic.twitter.com/PLmTu7HpHH– ANI (@ANI) May 19, 2019
West Bengal: BJP Lok Sabha candidate from South Kolkata parliamentary constituency, CK Bose casts his vote at a polling booth in City College, in Kolkata pic.twitter.com/MZAKmrrUvm– ANI (@ANI) May 19, 2019
West Bengal: Kolkata North BJP candidate Rahul Sinha casts his vote at polling booth in Bijoygarh Shikshaniketan For Girls, in Jadavpur. pic.twitter.com/q2dtJGB3gf– ANI (@ANI) May 19, 2019
#LokSabhaElections2019 : Bihar Deputy CM Sushil Modi casts his vote at booth number 49 in Patna. pic.twitter.com/Blwg9EThAX– ANI (@ANI) May 19, 2019
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar casts his vote at polling booth number 326 at a school in Raj Bhawan, Patna. #LokSabhaElections2019pic.twitter.com/5OIMZptQnw– ANI (@ANI) May 19, 2019
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath exercises his franchise at polling booth no. 246 in Gorakhpur.#LokSabhaElections2019pic.twitter.com/heXwytEqlY– ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) May 19, 2019
In Bihar’s Buxar, Union Minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey is banking on the Narendra Modi factor to retain the seat for the second time. Facing him is Jagadanand Singh, a senior leader from Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). Mr Singh has represented the Lok Sabha constituency in the past. Unlike Mr Choubey, who is from Bhagalpur, Mr Singh is seen as a local. Rajputs are a key factor in this Brahmin dominated seat.
Former Lok Sabha Speaker and Congress leader Meira Kumar is contesting from Bihar’s Sasaram, which she had represented two times on the trot before losing to BJP’s Chhedi Paswan in 2014.
Mr Paswan was a lawmaker from the seat in 1989 and 1991 on a Janata Dal ticket. Meira Kumar’s father, former deputy prime minister Jagjivan Ram, had represented the reserved seat several times, mostly on a Congress ticket and twice as the Janata Party’s candidate.
Though Sasaram is a reserved (Scheduled Caste) seat, the fight is tough for both Chhedi Paswan and Meira Kumar. If Ms Kumar is playing her father’s legacy card, Mr Paswan is banking on PM Narendra Modi’s influence and popularity.
Pataliputra, named after the ancient city that was capital of the Magadh kingdom, sees a straight flight between jailed Bihar politician Lalu Prasad Yadav’s eldest daughter Misa Bharti and former loyalist of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief. Misa Bharti who had lost to the former five years ago, entered the electoral battle again apparently to avenge the defeat despite being a member of the Rajya Sabha. Union Minister Ram Kripal Yadav is the sitting lawmaker and the BJP candidate in Pataliputra.
Ms Bharti hopes to gain sympathy with her campaign almost entirely focused on her ailing father who is serving prison sentences in multiple fodder scam cases and has not been able to secure bail.
In West Bengal’s high-profile Jadavpur seat, the Trinamool Congress is banking on the celebrity status of Bengali actor Mimi Chakraborty for a third consecutive win. Ms Chakraborty faces a stiff challenge from the CPI(M)’s Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, who was the mayor of Kolkata. The BJP, in a bid to win the seat riding on its growing popularity, has fielded Anupam Hazra, a TMC parliamentarian in the outgoing Lok Sabha who switched sides before the election. It was in Jadavpur where Mamata Banerjee had defeated Left veteran Somnath Chatterjee in 1984 when she was with the Congress. In Jadavpur, no party has won a third consecutive term so far.
Chandigarh is seeing a triangular contest in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The BJP has fielded its sitting lawmaker, actor Kirron Kher, who is banking on PM Narendra Modi’s popularity and development agenda. She is contesting against former railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal of the Congress and Harmohan Dhawan of the Aam Aadmi Party. Mr Dhawan is a former union minister and rebel BJP lawmaker who had supported Kirron Kher in the previous Lok Sabha election. Chandigarh has over 6.2 lakh registered voters.
Bollywood actor Sunny Deol is BJP’s candidate from the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha constituency, which is currently being represented by the Congress. Sunny Deol is the third person from his family to join politics – and the BJP – after his father Dharmendra and stepmother Hema Malini. Sunny Deol’s campaign in Punjab witnessed many colourful moments with him holding up a hand pump, recreating a scene from his hit film “Gadar: Ek Prem Katha”, and at other times getting big cheers for repeating popular dialogues from his movies.
Sunny Deol is contesting against state Congress chief and sitting lawmaker Sunil Jakhar. Mr Jakhar, the son of former Congress leader Balram Jakhar, is banking on projects taken up by him as lawmaker from the seat. Gurdaspur has traditionally been a BJP stronghold. It was represented four times by veteran actor Vinod Khanna, who died in April 2017.
Bhojpuri superstar Ravi Kishan BJP’s candidate in the crucial Gorakhpur constituency, the stronghold of UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath. The BJP, which lost Gorakhpur to the alliance of Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party in the by-election last year is hoping to get it back. He is pitted against the Congress’s Madhusudan Tripathi and Rambhual Nishad of the Samajwadi Party. Gorakhpur lawmaker Pravin Nishad, who had won the seat on a Samajwadi Party ticket last year, has joined the BJP. Gorakhpur was represented many times by Yogi Adityanath in the Lok Sabha from 1998 to 2017, before he became the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.
Firebrand actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha, who recently switched from the BJP to the Congress, takes on Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in Bihar’s Patna Sahib. Mr Sinha, who has represented the seat for a decade, was upset when he was snubbed by the BJP, which named Ravi Shankar Prasad as its candidate from the constituency. Soon after joining the Congress, Shatrughan Sinha ruffled many feathers within the party after his controversial comments on Mohammed Ali Jinnah and when he campaigned for his wife Poonam Sinha who contested from Lucknow on a Samajwadi Party ticket, though the Congress has also fielded its candidate from there.
Ravi Shankar Prasad, one of the most prominent ministers in PM Narendra Modi’s cabinet, is banking on his long connection with Patna and the achievements of the Narendra Modi-led BJP government.
The Kayastha community, which has a sizeable population, will also play a key role in Patna Sahib.
The Congress has again fielded Ajay Rai, who finished third in 2014 with only 75,000 votes. The Congress hopes Mr Rai, a Bhumihar, can at least make a dent in PM Modi’s votes. The Bhumihar caste enjoys significant influence in eastern Uttar Pradesh.
The opposition gathbandhan (alliance) of Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party and Mayawati’s BSP also has its own candidate. The Samajwadi Party is fielding Shalini Yadav, the daughter-in-law of a former Congress lawmaker as the opposition candidate from Varanasi.
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