New Delhi: The fate of several key leaders including Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Union Minister Smriti Irani will be decided on Monday in the fifth phase of the Lok Sabha polls, which will witness voting in 51 constituencies spread across seven states.
Fourteen seats in Uttar Pradesh, 12 in Rajasthan, seven each in West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh, five in Bihar and four in Jharkhand will go to polls in addition to Ladakh and Anantnag constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir.
This is a key phase for BJP in UP since it had won 12 out of the 14 seats in the 2014 general elections. The party is now facing the combined force of SP, BSP and RLD, which had contested separately last time.
According to the Election Commission of India, over 8.75 crore voters are eligible to cast their ballot to decide the fate of 674 candidates. As many as 96,000 polling stations have been set up and security arrangements made for the smooth conduct of the elections.
In Amethi, Rahul Gandhi is pitted against BJP nominee Smriti Iraniwho was defeated by the Congress leader in the 2014 general elections. Sonia Gandhi, who is seeking re-election from the Raebareli seat, is contesting against BJP's Dinesh Pratap Singh among other candidates.
BJP's Rajanth Singh, SP-BSP's Poonam Sinha and Congress' Pramod Krishnam are in the fray from Lucknow. Union ministers Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Arjun Ram Meghwal and Jayant Sinha, all from BJP, are contesting from Jaipur Rural and Bikaner in Rajasthan and Hazaribagh in Jharkhand respectively.