NEW DELHI, May 6 (NNN-BSS) — Congress President Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi will contest from Amethi and Rae Bareli parliamentary constituencies of Uttar Pradesh as India goes on its fifth phase of marathon general election Monday after a six-day recess.
Rahul and Sonia are among 674 candidates, who will contest from 51 parliamentary constituencies spread over seven states and union territories Monday.
Rahul and Sonia will contest from Amethi and Rae Bareli respectively in the eastern part of Uttar Pradesh. In Amethi, Rahul will take on BJP candidate, a federal minister and former TV actress Smriti Irani, who lost to Rahul by 100,000 votes in the last 2014 parliamentary polls.
However, Sonia Gandhi will contest with the BJP candidate Dinesh Pratap Singh in Rae Bareli from where she won the polls four times since 1997. In the last 2014 general election Sonia won against the BJP candidates Ajay Agarwal by a margin of 352,000 votes.
Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh will contest from Lucknow constituency with Poonam Sinha, a candidate of Samajwadi Party. Poonam Sinha is the wife of Bollywood actor-turned politician Shatrughan Sinha, who recently joined congress from the ruling BJP.
Over 87.5 million voters will be eligible to exercise their franchise in the fifth phase which will mark completion of polling in 424 of the total of 543 Lok Sabha constituencies. The last two phases of the marathon election process are scheduled for May 12 and 19. The vote-count will be taken up on May 23.
According to India’s election commission statement, the polls will be held in five parliamentary constituencies in Bihar, two in Jammu and Kashmir, four in Jharkhand, seven in Madhya Pradesh, 12 in Rajasthan, 14 in Uttar Pradesh and seven in West Bengal in the fifth phase of the marathon India’s general election. — NNN-BSS
