Lok Sabha elections: These 5 regions will witness fierce Modi vs Opposition faceoff

The Election Commission on Saturday announced the schedule of seven-phased Lok Sabha elections, setting stage for a high-octane poll summer.

From April 19 to June 1, nearly 97 crore voters across 10.5 lakh polling stations will take part in this mammoth democratic exercise once labelled as the ‘great electoral experiment’ in 1951-52.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who along with Amit Shah scripted the Bharatiya Janata Party’s electoral successes in 2014 and 2019, is eyeing a third straight term in office. If he does so, he will be only the second PM after Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to do so.

“When the opposition said ’24 mein 400 paar’, I said I have also heard this that NDA will cross 400. But I have also heard that the BJP alone will cross 370. And I will tell you how to do it,” the prime minister had said at a rally in Madhya Pradesh’s Jhabua last month.

Pitted against BJP is the opposition ‘INDIA’ alliance, a bloc of opposition parties comprising Congress and regional parties. The anti-BJP bloc has tried to put up a united front despite differences between the alliance partners on seat sharing issues.

In this mega festival of democracy, five regions will witness an exciting contest:

Uttar Pradesh

It has been famously said that the road to Delhi is via Lucknow. India’s most populous state Uttar Pradesh has given nine prime ministers to the country, including Modi, who is a sitting MP from Varanasi.

UP, which sends 80 members to the Lok Sabha, is crucial to BJP’s ambitions of bettering the overalll 2019 Lok Sabha tally of 303. The party is confident that the consecration of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya along with PM Modi and Yogi Adityanath’s popularity will get them more numbers than 2014 and 2019.

The BJP is facing a formidable challenge from its principal opponent, Samajwadi Party. In the 2019 elections, the Akhilesh Yadav-led SP had won 5 seats while its alliance partner Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party had bagged 10 seats.

The Congress, which once dominated the political landscape in this Hindi heartland state, has been fighting for survival. In the 2014 and 2019 elections, it could win just two and one seat respectively.

UP will vote in all seven phases in this Lok Sabha elections.

West Bengal

It was in 2021 assembly elections that Mamata Banerjee famously coined her party Trinamool Congress’s poll warcry of ‘Khela Hobe’ (Game’s on). Three years later, ‘Didi’ is on a similar warpath. With the Left Front totally decimated, her enemy No.1 was and is the BJP.

In the 2019 elections, the BJP had won 18 seats in a poll marred with violence. This time, it is leaving no stone unturned to corner Mamata Banerjee on various issues including Sandeshkhali where several women accused suspended TMC leader Sheikh Shahjahan of sexual assault.

Even Prime Minister Modi met the victims of this North 24 Parganas village. “What the TMC leader did with Sandeshkhali’s poor, tribal, Dalit women is being discussed in the entire country. TMC, Congress and the LEFT’s INDIA bloc did a lot of discrimination to the North Bengal. They did not develop these areas but also created social conflict,” he said in Siliguri.

Like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, Bengal is also voting in seven phases.

Maharashtra

Maharashtra will witness a five-phased election battle between the NDA comprising the BJP, Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and NCP led by Ajit Pawar, and the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi. The western state, which sends 48 members to the Lok Sabha, has witnessed dramatic political events in the past five years. From Devendra Fadnavis’ early morning oath to Maha Vikas Aghadi’s collapse following Shinde’s rebellion, Maharashtra is set for an interesting contest this year.

Southern States

The BJP, often dubbed as a north Indian party by its critics, has made strides in southern states in recent years. In Karnataka, the BJP had won 25 out of 28 seats in the 2019 elections. However, the Congress would be hoping to translate its 2023 assembly poll triumph into Lok Sabha success this time.

In Andhra Pradesh, the BJP has tied up with Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party and Pawan Kalyan’s Jana Sena against Jagan Mohan Reddy’s YSRCP.

Telangana, the new state carved out of Andhra witnessed a Congress victory last December. The grand old party, which ended the 10-year-long reign of K Chandrasekhar Rao’s BRS, would be eyeing a 2023 rerun.

In Tamil Nadu, INDIA allies DMK and Congress would be eyeing a strong performance against the AIADMK. The BJP, on the other hand, is hoping to mark its presence by capitalising on the controversy over Udhayanidhi Stalin’s remark against the ‘Sanatan Dharma’.

In God’s own country Kerala, the CPM is currently the ruling party. The BJP has fielded Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar against three-time Congress MP Shashi Tharoor in Thiruvananthapuram.

Northeast

Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Tripura – and Sikkim, will vote on April 19, 26 and May 7. Out of 25 seats in the northeast, the BJP and its allies won 18 in the previous election.

Manipur, the northeastern state gripped in violence since May last year, will see one of its two constituencies voting on two days. The Inner Manipur constituency will be voting on April 19 (phase 1), outer Manipur will vote on two dates: April 19 (phase 1) and April 26 (phase 2).