A total of 979 candidates are in the fray in Lok Sabha elections 2019 Phase 6 which will be held on 12 May, Sunday.

The sixth phase, which marks the penultimate stage of the seven phase elections, will witness voting in 59 Lok Sabha constituencies across 7 states, including Delhi.

Over 10 crore 17 lakh voters will get to exercise their franchise in 1,13,167 polling stations in the seven states.

The polling stations and the number of voters, however, do not include over 150 polling booths where re-polling has been ordered by the Election Commission. Re-polling will be held in 168 polling stations in West Tripura and 2 in West Bengal – number 116 polling station in Barrackpore and number 110 in Arambag. Voting in these polling stations will take place on 12 May.

While big names from Uttar Pradesh dominated the fifth phase, the focus of the electoral battle in sixth phase shifts to Madhya Pradesh and Delhi.

While Congress’ Jyotiraditya Scindia is in the fray from Guna, former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh is facing BJP’s controversial candidate Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur from Bhopal in what has been given the shape of a battle of ideologies.

It is a three-corner battle for all seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi. BJP Delhi chief Manoj Tiwari is defending his North East Delhi seat against Congress leader and former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit. Also in the equation is Dilip Pandey of AAP.

But the most interesting contest is for Delhi East, where the BJP fielded its new inductee Gautam Gambhir against AAP’s Atishi and Congress’ Arvinder Singh Lovely.

On the other hand, former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav is looking to return to Parliament from the Yadav bastion of Azamgarh. Though parties holding the seat may have changed, the elected MP has been traditionally been from the Yadav community since 1962. The seat was last held by Akhilesh’s father Mulayam Singh Yadav, who contested from Mainpuri in this election.

Haryana and Delhi are the only two states in this phase where all seats will witness polling.

Here are the key constituencies and contenders to watch out for in Phase 6:

Bihar – 8

Constituency/ies that go to polls:

Valmikinagar, Paschim Champaran, Purvi Champaran, Sheohar, Vaishali, Gopalganj, Siwan, Maharajganj

Number of contenders:

127

Main parties:

BJP+JD(U)+LJP, Mahagathbandhan of RJD+Congress+others

Key contest/s:

Vaishali – Vina Devi of LJP versus Raghuvansh Babu of RJD

Purvi Champaran – BJP’s Radha Mohan Singh versus Akash Kumar Singh of RLSP

Delhi – 7

Constituency/ies that go to polls:

Chandni Chowk, North East Delhi, East Delhi, New Delhi, North West Delhi, West Delhi, South Delhi

Number of contenders:

164

Main parties:

AAP, BJP, Congress

Key contest/s:

East Delhi – Gautam Gambhir of BJP versus Arvinder Singh Lovely of Congress versus AAP’s Atishi

North East Delhi – BJP’s Manoj Tiwari versus Sheila Dikshit of Congress versus Dilip Pandey of AAP

New Delhi – BJP’s Meenakshi Lekhi versus Congress’ Ajay Maken versus AAP’s Brijesh Goyal

Haryana – 10

Constituency/ies that go to polls:

Ambala, Kurukshetra, Sirsa, Hisar, Karnal, Sonipat, Rohtak, Bhiwani-Mahendragarh, Gurgaon, Faridabad

Number of contenders:

223

Main parties:

BJP, Congress, AAP+JJP

Key contest/s:

Sonipat – BJP’s Ramesh Chandra Kaushik versus Bhupinder Singh Hooda of Congress versus Digvijay Singh Chautala of JJP (AAP ally)

Jharkhand – 4

Constituency/ies that go to polls:

Giridih, Dhanbad, Jamshedpur, Singhbhum

Number of contenders:

67

Main parties:

BJP, Congress+JMM+JVM+RJD

Key contest/s:

Dhanbad – Pashupati Nath Singh           of BJP versus Congress’ Kirti Azad

Madhya Pradesh– 8

Constituency/ies that go to polls:

Morena, Bhind, Gwalior, Guna, Sagar, Vidisha, Bhopal, Rajgarh

Number of contenders:

138

Main parties:

BJP, Congress

Key contest/s:

Bhopal – Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur of BJP versus Congress’ Digvijaya Singh

Morena – Narendra Singh Tomar of BJP versus Congress’ Ram Niwas Rawat

Guna – Dr. KP Yadav of BJP versus Congress’ Jyotiraditya Scindia

Uttar Pradesh– 14

Constituency/ies that go to polls:

Sultanpur, Pratapgarh, Phulpur, Allahabad, Ambedkar Nagar, Shrawasti, Domariyaganj, Basti, Sant Kabir Nagar, Lalganj, Azamgarh, Jaunpur, Machhlishahr, Bhadohi

Number of contenders:

177

Main parties:

BJP, Congress, SP+BSP+RLD

Key contest/s:

Sultanpur – Maneka Gandhi of BJP versus Sanjay Singh of Congress versus Chandrabhadra Singh of BSP

Allahabad – Rita Bahuguna Joshi of BJP versus Rajendra Pratap Singh of SP versus Yogesh Shukla of Congress

Phulpur – BJP’s Keshri Patel versus Congress’ Pankaj Niranjan versus Pandhari Yadav of SP

Azamgarh – Akhilesh Yadav of SP (Coalition) versus Dinesh Lal Yadav aka Nirahua of BJP

West Bengal – 8

Constituency/ies that go to polls:

Tamluk, Kanthi, Ghatal, Jhargram, Medinipur, Purulia, Bankura, Bishnupur

Number of contenders:

83

Main parties:

TMC, BJP, Congress

Key contest/s:

Medinipur – BJP’s Dilip Ghosh versus Congress’ Sambhunath Chatterjee versus TMC’s Manas Bhunia

Ghatal – BJP’s Bharati Ghosh versus TMC’s Deepak Adhikari aka Deb verus Congress’ Khandakar Mohammad Saifullah

Bankura – Subhash Sarkar of BJP versus Congress’ Subrata Mukherjee

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