Battle of the Bastions: From Scindia power in Guna to Baramati’s Pawar play, poll summer faces heat of turfs
Battle of the Bastions: From Scindia power in Guna to Baramati’s Pawar play, poll summer faces heat of turfs
Lok Sabha Elections Phase 3 Voting: Voters in 94 Lok Sabha constituencies across 10 states and 2 Union Territories will cast their votes on May 7 during the third phase of India’s seven-phase General Elections. From Etawah-Mainpuri stronghold of Samajwadi Party’s founding family to Baramati in Maharashtra, the battle for the strongholds of some of India’s most noted and voted politicians is being keenly watched.
By the evening of May 7, Indians across 283 of India’s 543 Lok Sabha seats would have cast their votes.
This is quite the middle of India’s heated election summer. Here’s what the bastions of top politicians across multiple states look like.
Karnataka Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Dharwad, Haveri, Gulbarga, and more
Of the 14 Lok Sabha constituencies going to polls in the third phase of voting on May 7, the keenly watched contests remain in Dharwad (Pralhad Joshi), Haveri (Basavaraj Bommai) and Gulbarga (Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge’s stronghold).
Radha Krishna Doddamani during a press conference in Kalaburgi | X
Radha Krishna Doddamani (extreme right) during a press conference in Kalaburgi | X
Speaking to WION, Congress candidate from Gulbarga Radhakrishna Doddamani expressed confidence about his victory. Asked if he got enough support from central leadership in New Delhi for canvassing in Gulbarga, Doddamani said that his supporters are “comfortable” and that they will post a win for the Congress on June 4.
Madhya Pradesh Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Rajgarh, Guna, Vidisha and more
Voters across nine Lok Sabha constituencies in central Madhya Pradesh state will be eligible to cast their vote on May 7. Eight of these constituencies, namely Bhind, Betul, Bhopal, Guna, Gwalior, Morena, Sagar and Vidisha, are currently the strongholds of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
Rajgarh Lok Sabha constituency
Congress party has fielded former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister and senior leader Digvijaya Singh from Rajgarh Lok Sabha constituency. While the BJP has won up to 65 per cent vote share from the constituency in the last two Lok Sabha polls from here, the Congress party workers upped the ante for former CM in the constituency, making it a keenly watched contest in the state.
Notably, Singh lost his last Lok Sabha election to the BJP’s Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur in 2019 from Bhopal Lok Sabha seat.
Guna Lok Sabha constituency
Guna, in Madhya Pradesh’s Gwalior-Chambal region, has been represented by three generations of the Scindia family in the past 37 years. But in 2019, then Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia’s winning streak that began in 2002 came to an end as the Scindia bastion fell to the BJP under PM Modi. But after moving to the ruling party in March 2020, Scindia is seeking a place in Lok Sabha from Guna yet again.
BJP’s Jyotiraditya Scindia in Guna | X
BJP’s Jyotiraditya Scindia in Guna | X
Scindia is facing Congress party’s Rao Yadavendra Singh Yadav from Guna.
Vidisha Lok Sabha constituency
Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has returned to contest from the constituency he represent for four terms between 1991 and 2006. The constituency is considered a definite saffron stronghold with the legacy of leaders such as Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Sushma Swaraj who were its representatives in Lok Sabha.
BJP leader and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan | X
BJP leader and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan | X
BJP’s Shivraj Singh Chouhan is up against the Congress Party’s Pratap Bhanu Sharma, one of the only two non-BJP leaders to have ever won a Lok Sabha election from Vidisha.
Gujarat Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Gandhinagar, Porbandar, and more
Voters across all 26 Lok Sabha constituencies of western India’s Gujarat, home state to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, will vote on May 7 in the third phase of elections.
The BJP won all 26 Lok Sabha seats of Gujarat in the Lok Sabha elections of 2014 and 2019.
Not just that, during the state assembly elections in December 2022, the BJP won 156 of 182 seats in what became the seventh term in power for the party.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah is contesting from Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat, a constituency once held by the BJP patriarch Lal Krishna Advani. Besides, health minister Mansukh Mandaviya is a BJP candidate from Porbandar Lok Sabha seat, the birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi.
Maharashtra Lok Sabha Elections 2024, Baramati, Satara, and more
One of the most keenly watched contests in India’s ongoing election summer is the battle for the Pawar bastion of Baramati in Maharashtra. Baramati is among the 11 constituencies in Maharashtra that go to poll in the third phase of Lok Sabha elections 2024 on May 7.
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Supriya Sule, the three-time Member of Parliament from Baramati, is seeking re-election. Sule is up against her sister-in-law Sunetra Pawar. In a first for over 2.3 million electorate of Baramati, the three-time MP and Sharad Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule is taking on Sunetra Pawar, wife of Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, who split the National Congress Party (NCP) to join the ruling BJP-Shiv Sena alliance last year.
The fight in Baramati is as much about the Pawars, as about power.
In Satara, which again is a stronghold of Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Shashikant Shinde is up against former NCP leader-turned BJP-candidate Udayanraje Bhosale.
Uttar Pradesh Lok Sabha Elections: Badaun, Mainpuri, Firozabad, and more
Voters across 13 Lok Sabha seats of Uttar Pradesh will also cast their votes on May 7. But the day is particularly crucial for Akhilesh Yadav and Samajwadi Party, the principal opposition party in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most politically influential state that sends maximum lawmakers to the parliament.
Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav | X
Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav | X
Aditya Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav’s cousin and the son of his once estranged uncle Shivpal Yadav, is looking to make his Lok Sabha debut from Badaun, a seat which has traditionally been an SP stronghold.
But under PM Modi, the BJP’s Sanghamitra Maurya managed to end SP’s winning streak in Badaun in 2019.
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This time, the saffron party has fielded Durvijay Sakya to take on SP debutant Aditya Yadav.
In Mainpuri, a constituency previously by the Samajwadi Party patriarch late Mulayam Singh Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav’s wife Dimple Yadav is seeking re-election. Dimple is up against the BJP’s Jaiveer Singh and Bahujan Samaj Party’s Shiv Prasad Yadav.
Akshay Yadav, another Akhilesh Yadav cousin, is seeking election from Firozabad Lok Sabha constituency from where he lost in 2019 while seeking re-election. Firozabad, a constituency once held by actor-turned-politician Raj Babbar, is witnessing a battle beween Akshay and BJP’s Vishwadeep Singh.
The counting of votes is scheduled to begin on June 4. For all the latest developments related to Lok Sabha Elections 2024, stay tuned with WION, World Is One News.