About 40 seats of the 72 Lok Sabha constituencies across nine States where polling will take place on Monday in fourth phase of Lok Sabha elections will witness a direct battle between the ruling NDA and the Opposition UPA.
In Bihar, the Darbhanga, Munger, Ujiarpur, Samastipur and Begusarai seats will elect their MPs on Monday. In Begusarai, the triangular fight between BJP’s Giriraj Singh, RJD’s Tanweer Hassan and CPI’s Kanhaiya Kumar has grabbed national attention. Anantnag in Jammu and Kashmir and Chatra, Lohardaga and Palamu seats in Jharkhand will also go to the polls in the fourth phase.
In Madhya Pradesh, Balaghat, Sidhi, Shahdol, Jabalpur, Mandla, and Chhindwara will face elections. In Chhindwara, Nakul Nath, son of Chief Minister and nine-term MP from the seat Kamal Nath, is fighting against BJP’s Nathan Shah.
In Maharashtra, people in 17 constituencies will vote on Monday. In Mumbai North, sitting MP Gopal Shetty is fighting actor Urmila Matondkar of the Congress.
Six seats — Mayurbhanj, Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur — of Odisha will see voting.
In Rajasthan, elections to 13 constituencies on Monday. In Jodhpur, State Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot’s son Vaibhav Gehlot is fighting Minister of State in the Narendra Modi Cabinet Gajendra Singh Shekhawat. In Jhalawar-Baran, former chief minister Vasundhara Raje’s son and two-term MP Dushyant Singh is fighting the Congress’s Pramod Sharma.
The potato belt of Uttar Pradesh will also vote on Monday. Shahjahanpur, Kheri, Hardoi, Misrikh, Unnao, Farrukhabad, Etawah, Kannauj, Kanpur, Akbarpur, Jalaun, Jhansi and Hamirpur are the constituencies. Issues with pricing and procurement of potatoes have been a major topic during the campaigns in this region.
In West Bengal, Baharampur, Krishnanagar, Ranaghat, Bardhaman Purba, Bardhaman-Durgapur, Asansol, Bolpur and Birbhum are the constituencies where voting will take place.