New Delhi:

Polling for the fifth phase of the Lok Sabha election began today with voting taking place in 49 seats across six states and the union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. States where voting will take place are Uttar Pradesh (14), Maharashtra (13), Bengal (7), Odisha and Bihar (5), and Jharkhand (3), as also one seat each in J&K and Ladakh. In addition, 35 Assembly seats in Odisha will also vote.

This will be the smallest of the seven phases in this election but will still feature some big names, including Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, who will contest from the family stronghold of Raebareli in Uttar Pradesh – won in the past five elections by his mother Sonia Gandhi. This will be his second contest this election; he fought from Kerala’s Wayanad, which voted April 26. He won the seat last year, allowing him to remain a MP after a shock defeat to the BJP’s Smriti Irani in UP’s other Congress bastion, Amethi.

READ | Called “Gandhis’ Chaprasi” By BJP Leader, Congress’s Amethi Pick Says

Amethi will also vote today, with senior Congress leader Kishori Lal Sharma looking to win back the seat. Mr Sharma, seen by many as a second-choice candidate after Rahul Gandhi’s sister, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, declined another invitation to make her electoral debut.

READ | Rahul Gandhi Files Papers From Raebareli, Gandhis Opt Out Of Amethi

Smriti Irani will attempt to defend her Amethi seat in this election.

The suspense over who from the Congress would contest these two (very) high-profile seats was among the biggest headlines leading up to this phase of the election, with even party boss Mallikarjun Kharge leaving the decision up to Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is also on the ballot.

He contests from Lucknow and is aiming for a hat-trick, with the Samajwadi Party’s Ravidas Mehrotra his big rival. The SP is part of the INDIA bloc and has been backed in this campaign by the Congress.

Kaiserganj has also become a headline seat as it was the constituency of ex-national wrestling body chief Brij Bhushan Singh, who was dropped after the BJP came under heavy pressure over allegations of sexual assault against him. His son, instead, has been fielded.

READ | Like My Father, Will Be There For You: Brij Bhushan’s Son To Voters

Away from UP, the six Lok Sabha seats of Mumbai are also voting in this phase. 

Maharashtra politics has seen a series of swings and U-turns since the 2019 state election, which saw the Shiv Sena and the BJP part ways, and the latter form an unlikely alliance with the Congress and Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party.

However, since then both the Sena and the NCP have gone through civil wars and seen rebel factions join the BJP (and being rewarded with a chief minister and deputy chief minister’s post), leading to a controversial change of government and strengthening of the BJP’s hand for this election.

Mumbai’s six seats have been divided amongst the two big alliances at play in this election – the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance and the Congress-led INDIA bloc.

The big names on the ballots in Indian’s financial capital include Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, who will contest from Mumbai (North) against the Congress’ Bhushan Patil. 

Mumbai’s North-West, South-Central, and South seats will see grudge matches, with the original Sena (led by ex-Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray) against those from the breakaway group (led by the current chief minister, Eknath Shinde). North-East seat will be a BJP vs Sena (Uddhav Thackeray) battle and it is the BJP vs the Congress for the North-Central seat.

In the 2019 election, the BJP and the (then) undivided Shiv Sena swept all six seats.

Other major seats in Maharashtra voting in this phase are Nashik and Palghar. 

Eknath Shinde’s Sena has fielded sitting MP Hemant Godse in Nashik, and he faces Rajabhau Waje from the Thackeray camp, while Palghar sees a more open contest.

The Bahujan Samaj Party (not an INDIA member), Mr Thackeray’s Sena, the BJP, and Prakash Ambedkar’s Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi – which had prolonged and ultimately fruitless and acrimonious talks with the Sena-Congress-NCP alliance – all fielding candidates. 

In Bihar, Lalu Prasad Yadav’s daughter, Rohini Acharya, is looking to win back the Saran seat that was won by the ex-Chief Minister in 2009, in the first election after it was formed.

READ | Lalu Yadav’s Daughter Rohini Acharya Against Father’s Namesake In Saran

Since then, though, it has been held by the BJP’s Rajiv Pratap Rudy. Another high-profile contest in the state is in Hajipur, which was the stronghold of late Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan.

Mr Paswan’s son, Chirag Paswan is leading one of the factions of the LJP that broke up after his death and has allied with the BJP. He faces Shiv Chandra Ram, a trusted aide of Lalu Prasad Yadav.

Ladakh, which saw a hunger fast by climate activist and environmental reformer Sonam Wangchuk in March over demands for statehood and protection of the fragile Himalayan ecology, sees a BJP vs Congress fight between Tashi Gyalsan and Tsering Namgyal.

J&K’s Baramulla seat is also voting. It will see ex-Chief Minister and National Conference boss Omar Abdullah looking to defend the seat won by Mohammad Akbar Lone in the last election.

READ | “J&K Faces Existential Threat”: Omar Abdullah On Article 370 Scrapping

He faces Sajjid Gani Lone of the Jammu and Kashmir’s People’s Conference and Fayaz Mir of the People’s Democratic Party, led by ex-Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti.

The Congress and parties now with the INDIA bloc won nine of these 49 seats last time.

The BJP won 39 and will be hoping for a similarly emphatic result this time as it bids to achieve its target of 370 seats on its own and 400 with its NDA partners.

The sixth and seventh phases will take place on May 25 (when Delhi will vote) and June 1 (when Prime Minister Narendra Modi will contest from Varanasi in UP).

Results will be out on June 4.

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Amethi:

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Saturday attacked BJP’s Amethi Lok Sabha seat candidate and sitting MP Smriti Irani, alleging that the region has “suffered” in the last five years as the BJP never thought about its development.

She was here to seek support for Congress’ candidate from the seat Kishori Lal Sharma, who she said has “dedicated his entire life to Amethi”. Priyanka Gandhi, who is the general secretary in the Congress, held a roadshow in Jasi town on the last day of campaigning for the seat that goes to polls on May 20 in the fifth round of the seven-phase general elections.

“He (Sharma) has been associated with Amethi for the last 40 years. He was associated with my father (Rajiv Gandhi) here, he also worked with my mother (Sonia Gandhi) and my elder brother Rahul Gandhi. He has dedicated his entire life to Amethi,” she said while addressing a gathering.

During the roadshow, which began from the Jais bus stand and ended at the Navjeet Intersection, Priyanka Gandhi and Sharma were seen waving at and greeting people from a vehicle. Flower petals were showered on them as the vehicle passed through the town.

“Amethi is my home and family, we have never stayed away from it and never will,” said Priyanka Gandhi, who was in Amethi and Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh to campaign for Sharma and Rahul Gandhi, respectively.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Rahul Gandhi had contested from Wayanad in Kerala and Amethi. He won from Wayanad but lost Amethi to Irani.

Targeting Ms Irani, the Congress leader said, “Amethi has suffered a lot in the last five years…” and “these people never thought about its development”. “Rahul was defeated (in 2019) as they mislead you,” she said.

“We understand our responsibility because Amethi is my home and family. We will keep working for this family. Along with Kishori Lal Sharma ji, Rahul Gandhi has also said this is my family and I will keep working for Amethi and Rae Bareli,” Priyanka Gandhi said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

Congress’s Rahul Gandhi has shifted to Uttar Pradesh’s Raebareli, leaving Amethi to family loyalist and party leader KL Sharma. But he was the opponent who is being targeted by the BJP’s Union minister Smriti Irani, the sitting MP of Amethi. Ms Irani, who wrested Amethi from Rahul Gandhi in 2019, is hoping for a second consecutive term.  

Speaking at a rally today, Ms Irani targeted Mr Gandhi over a Pakistani leader’s comments in his support.

“Till now I used to contest against Congress candidates, but now a Pakistani leader has said, ‘Smriti Irani should be defeated,” Ms Irani said to loud cheers.

“I thought ‘You cannot handle Pakistan, you are worrying about Amethi?’ If my voice is reaching the Pakistani leader, I want to say that this is Amethi, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi has built a factory of AK 203 rifles. That rifle is used to kill Pakistani terrorists on the border,” she added.

Then came the attack on Mr Gandhi. “Today I want to ask, ‘What is this relationship between Pakistan and Rahul Gandhi? Elections are going on in the country but you (Rahul Gandhi) are getting support from them and did not condemn it,” she added.

Last week, former Pakistan minister Chaudhry Fawad Hussain had praised Rahul Gandhi in a post on social media. Mr Gandhi since has been targeted by the BJP on this issue. Most leaders, starting with PM Modi, had questioned his “Pakistan connection”.

Last week, PM Modi had alleged a “partnership” between the Congress and Pakistan, saying it now stands “fully exposed”.

“You must have come to know that a Pakistani leader is offering prayers for the Congress. Pakistan is impatient to make Shehzada (Rahul Gandhi) the Prime Minister… And we know that the Congress is a disciple of Pakistan,” he had said.  

Mr Gandhi, who has contested from Wayanad, was announced last week as the candidate for Raebareli, the constituency vacated by his mother Sonia Gandhi as she shifted to the Rajya Sabha.

Mr Gandhi was widely expected to attempt to win back Amethi, which sent him to the Lok Sabha thrice. His shift to Raebareli – described by many Congress leaders as a strategic move – had drawn jabs from the BJP. PM Modi had said Mr Gandhi should not run but stand and fight.

Kochi:

Union Minister Smriti Irani on Thursday took a swipe at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi saying he is the “political master” of his party and that “arrogance” caused his defeat in Amethi, a seat that the grand old party had held “as a family” for over four decades.

Ms Irani, the Union Minister of Women and Child Development, further said that the alliance of opposition parties today on the national front was one she had fought in Amethi in 2019 when she defeated Rahul Gandhi.

The minister was responding to a query from the audience during the Manorama News Conclave 2023 organised by the Malayalam Manorama group here as to why BJP was unable to win a seat in Kerala and whether she would compete against Mr Gandhi to remedy the same.

Answering the query, Ms Irani said, “Rahul Gandhi is the political master of the Congress party and I am a political ‘karyakarta’ (worker) of the BJP. There is a huge political difference between being a political master and a worker.

“I think it is that arrogance that has ensured that the Congress party, even in a Lok Sabha constituency called Amethi, in the past four-and-a-half years that I have been an MP from there, out of five assembly constituencies has lost the security deposit in four,” she added. 

She said that, in 2019, Congress had over four lakh votes in Amethi, “which they held as a family for close to four decades”, and now that has been reduced to 1.2 lakh.

“I think is indicative that though there has been a decadal stronghold in many pockets by opposition parties. It takes time, but eventually the BJP’s karyakarta does manage to gain victory,” the Union minister said.

She also pointed out that in the 2019 LS polls, Congress did not fight alone in Amethi, Uttar Pradesh.

“They fought with the support of the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party. So the alliance you see today on the national front is an alliance I have fought in 2019 in Amethi,” she said.

Regarding the INDIA bloc, Ms Irani also said that if you look closely at the “amalgamation” of political forces, “the fissures and fractures amongst them are more than obvious”.

She further said that all the opposition parties coming together with the purpose of defeating Narendra Modi was the biggest indication that he would get re-elected for a third term.

“One was not enough, they needed multiple political forces to challenge this one political leader. If that does not give you an indication of the impending success electorally in 2024, what more would you ask for,” she said in response to a query regarding PM Modi’s remark sometime back that he would get a third term.

On a query from the audience from a Congress member as to whether the Women’s Reservation Bill was an “election stunt” and would it be implemented, Ms Irani said that first delimitation has to happen which can only take place in 2026, according to Article 82 of the Constitution.

She claimed that when the Congress had introduced the Bill, it did not contain the process to implement the reservation for women.

After the Bill was passed by the Rajya Sabha where the BJP supported it, the Congress left it pending in the Lok Sabha for four years despite having the numbers to push it through, the minister claimed.

“The Congress never had the intention of passing it,” she alleged.

Ms Irani further said that, under the Bill proposed by the Congress, women could fight in only two elections, while under the BJP’s legislation, the reservation would be available for 15 years – which means three terms.

After that, it would come back to Parliament again to decide whether women have received the political parity that the Bill desires to ensure, she said.

“Which means the BJP did not leave it open-ended. So read Article 82 of the Constitution,” Ms Irani said to the Congress member who raised the query regarding the Bill. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)