As the seventh and final phase of Lok Sabha elections concluded on Saturday (June 1) at 6 pm, the exit poll figures started pouring in.
The states of Uttar Pradesh (80) and Bihar (40) together send 120 MPs to the Lok Sabha and remain electorally crucial. It is famously said that the road to Delhi passes through UP.
Notably, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is contesting from UP’s Varanasi and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is also a candidate on Rae Barelli seat. The seat is his second seat after Wayanad in Kerala.
Uttar Pradesh
Of the 80 seats in UP, the BJP-led NDA is expected to win 68-71 and the INDIA bloc 9-12, according to News 18 exit poll.
Among the NDA, the BJP is expected to win 64-67 seats. In the INDIA bloc, the Congress is expected to win three to six seats.
Uttar Pradesh sends 80 members to the Lower House of Parliament and the polling has been spread over all seven election phases. The state is seeing a direct contest between the BJP-led NDA and INDIA bloc members Samajwadi Party and Congress.
Among the prominent Lok Sabha seats in this phase are Modi’s Varanasi, Gorakhpur, which has been represented by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath five times, and Chandauli, Maharajganj and Mirzapur from where Union ministers Mahendra Nath Pandey, Pankaj Chaudhary and Anupriya Patel are contesting.
From Ghazipur, mafia don-turned-politician late Mukhtar Ansari’s brother Afzal Ansari is in the fray and from Ballia, former prime minister Chandrashekhar’s son Neeraj Shekhar is contesting. Campaigning for the 13 seats ended on Thursday evening.
Prime Minister Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh were among the star campaigners for the NDA. The INDIA. bloc saw Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and his wife Dimple Yadav canvassing for the candidates of the alliance, with roadshows held in Varanasi and Gorakhpur.
Polling for the final phase of Lok Sabha elections in 13 Uttar Pradesh constituencies that include Varanasi, from where Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seeking a third consecutive term, began at 7 am today.
Gandhi contested the polls from Rae Bareli in the fifth phase on May 20, Akhilesh Yadav was fielded by the SP from Kannauj that went to polls in the fourth phase on May 13 and Dimple Yadav contested from Mainpuri where voting was held in the third phase on May 7.
During campaigning, the BJP alleged that the INDIA bloc would bring in Muslim reservation and put the ‘Babri lock’ on Ayodhya’s Ram temple if voted to power. The opposition alliance urged people not to vote for the BJP to ‘save’ the Constitution and democracy.
BJP’s key allies NISHAD Party and Om Prakash Rajbhar’s SBSP have candidates contesting in this phase. Ally Apna Dal (Sonelal)’s Anupriya Patel is also seeking a reelection.
Mayawati’s BSP is contesting the Varanasi and Gorakhpur seats. UP’s Chief Electoral Officer Navdeep Rinwa said there are 2,50,56,877 voters in the 13 Lok Sabha seats in the seventh phase, including 1,33,10,897 men, 1,17,44,922 women and 1,058 transgender people.
Bihar
Of the 40 seats in Bihar, the NDA is expected to win 31-34 seats and INDI Alliance six to nine.
Within the NDA, the BJP is expected to win 13-16 seats and the Congress is expected to win zero to one seat within the INDI Alliance.
The total number of Lok Sabha seats in Bihar is 40. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party [BJP], Janata Dal (United) [JD(U)], and undivided Lok Janashakti Party [LJP] fought together, winning 39 of the total 40 parliamentary seats. The BJP secured 17 seats, JD(U) 16, and LJP 6.
Several high-profile candidates are in the fray in Bihar, including Union Minister RK Singh who is seeking his third term from Arrah, where his principal challenger is Sudama Prasad, a sitting MLA of CPI (ML) Liberation.
In Patna Sahib, veteran BJP parliamentarian Ravi Shankar Prasad is vying for a second consecutive Lok Sabha term, with Congress spokesperson Anshul Avijit as his principal challenger.
RJD president Lalu Prasad’s eldest daughter Misa Bharti is contesting for the third time in Pataliputra, while BJP MP Ram Kripal Yadav is aiming for a hat-trick. In Nalanda, the home district of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, incumbent MP Kaushlendra Kumar hopes to retain the seat for JD(U), with Sandeep Saurav, a sitting CPI (ML) MLA, as the principal challenger.
Upendra Kushwaha, former Union minister and head of the Rashtriya Lok Morcha, is hopeful of regaining the Karakat seat, following his return to the BJP-led coalition. Karakat is witnessing a multi-cornered fight, notably with Bhojpuri superstar Pawan Singh contesting as an Independent.
Voting for last phase began at 7 am in Patna Sahib, Patliputra, Arrah, Karakat, Jehanabad, Buxar, Nalanda and Jehanabad and will continue till 6 pm. In the last phase of Lok Sabha polls, over 16.2 million people will decided the fate of 134 candidates in 16,634 polling stations, with 3,885 in urban areas.
Link to article –
Exit Poll 2024: How many seats will Uttar Pradesh, Bihar give to BJP & INDI Alliance?
