Lok Sabha Polls: Voting In 117 Seats Today; Congress Faces Saffron Challenge

NEW DELHI: BJP faces a tough test in Bihar, Congress stares at a saffron challenge in Maharashtra and regional outfits contend with turning pitches on 117 Lok Sabha seats across 11 states and one union territory where polling is due on Thursday.

The 2014 Lok Sabha polls will be more than half over after elections to 347 seats are complete after the sixth phase of voting, with the 84, 91 and 41 seats left in the remaining phases.

BJP and Congress are squaring off in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan and state bosses like Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee, AIADMK's J Jayalalitha and NCP leader Sharad Pawar are also slugging it out with their rivals.

This phase will settle the fate of political biggies like SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and BJP leader Sushma Swaraj besides others like PDP’s Mehbooba Mufti, DMK's A Raja and Congress’s Mohammad Azharuddin.

The political topography is a challenge to BJP and Congress which need to defend turfs while seeking fresh gains even as regional forces like SP, BSP, AIADMK and DMK look to do much the same, with the difference that some now see BJP as an unanticipated threat.

All of 39 seats in Tamil Nadu and one seat of Puducherry will go to polls while elections will be over in major states like Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan. In Maharashtra the populous bell weather Mumbai-Thane-Kalyan belt will vote along with northern areas and Raigad.

The contests in Mumbai are keen, with Shiv Sena-BJP hoping to snatch seats from Congress-NCP riding on an anti-UPA wave and the diminished presence of Raj Thackeray's MNS.

Tamil Nadu is a fascinating mosaic, with front runner AIADMK losing some steam while DMK reportedly making a comeback of sorts and BJP’s unlikely alliance with DMDK, MDMK and PMK emerging as a force on its own.

In Bihar, a virtual eclipse of Janata Dal (U) poses problems for BJP with the fight appearing bi-polar in the five seats in Seemanchal and two that fall outside the region. There is a sizeable Muslim population in all seats and though BJP has been winning Araria, Purnea, Katihar and Bhagalpur, it now faces elections on its own. RJD boss Lalu Prasad and Congress seem to be back in the reckoning in the state.

Mulayam Singh Yadav defends his base of Etah-Mainpuri-Etawah, areas where he must score to check a resurgent BJP with reports from 21 seats in western UP and Rohilkhand indicating gains for the saffronites.

Though support for BSP is harder to gauge, SP’s main regional rival seems to be feeling the heat with religious polarisation post Muzaffarnagar riots making several contests primarily BJP versus SP affairs.

For BJP, the stakes continue to be high with its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi campaigning hard, addressing rallies in Hardoi, Etah, Firozabad and Mathura on Monday hoping for significant gains.

The Jat vote is a factor in just as Yadavs are expected to rally behind SP while Akbarpur has sent BSP chief Mayawati to Lok Saba twice, most recently in 2004.

In Rajasthan, prestigious Jat-influenced seats like Alwar and Bharatpur are due to poll along with constituencies like Tonk, Dausa and Sawai-Madhopur.

In Chhattisgarh, urbanising seats like Durg, Raipur and Bilaspur will be voting with Congress hoping to loosen BJP's seeming stranglehold.

In West Bengal, Abhijeet Mukherjee, son of President Pranab Mukherjee, is facing an uphill battle, with Murshidabad presenting the only bright spot for the party.

In Assam constituencies like Kokrajhar, that witnessed fierce rioting, and capital Guwahati are going to polls. In Madhya Pradesh, BJP veterans like Sumitra Mahajan (Indore) and Sushma Swaraj (Vidisha) will seek re-election besides Congress's Meenakshi Natarajan, seen to be close to Rahul Gandhi, from Mandsaur.