Maneka Gandhi To Mehbooba Mufti, Key Leaders Taking Poll Test Today

Several heavyweights are among the 889 candidates contesting in the sixth phase

New Delhi:

A total of 889 candidates from six states and a Union Territory are going to polls in the sixth phase today. These include all the seven seats in national capital Delhi. Prominent candidates in this phase include former JNU students’ union president Kanhaiya Kumar, now with the Congress, BJP veteran and former Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, four-time MP and former Union minister Maneka Gandhi and singer-turned-politician Manoj Tiwari.

Here’s a look at key candidates in this phase:

Manoj Tiwari: The two-time MP from North-East Delhi is the only sitting MP in the national capital who has been retained by the BJP in this election. Mr Tiwari, who was a popular actor and singer in the Bhojpuri film industry before joining politics, has also served as the chief of Delhi’s BJP unit. In the 2019 election, he defeated former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit by a margin of over 3.6 lakh votes. This time, with the AAP and the Congress joining ranks on the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi, the BJP leader is up against the Congress’s Kanhaiya Kumar.

Kanhaiya Kumar: The 37-year-old first made headlines in 2016 when Delhi Police arrested him on sedition charges in connection with an event organised on JNU campus to mark the second anniversary of the hanging of Afzal Guru, who was convicted in the Parliament attack case. In the 2019 polls, he contested from Bihar’s Begusarai as a CPI candidate, but lost to BJP’s firebrand leader and Union Minister Giriraj Singh by over 4 lakh votes. Now with the Congress, Mr Kumar is up against BJP’s Manoj Tiwari is North-East Delhi. Both candidates are vying for the votes of migrants from the Purvanchal region that covers easter Uttar Pradesh and western Bihar.

Bansuri Swaraj: The daughter of BJP stalwart and former External Affairs Minister, late Sushma Swaraj, is contesting from New Delhi seat, held by the BJP since 2014. Sitting MP and former Union Minister Meenakshi Lekhi did not get a poll pass from the constituency this time. An alumnus of the University of Warwick and Oxford University, Bansuri Swaraj is a lawyer practising in the Supreme Court. In her poll debut, she is up against AAP’s Somnath Bharti, a three-time MLA from Delhi’s Malviya Nagar.

Maneka Gandhi: The four-term MP who has served as a minister in BJP governments led by both Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Narendra Modi, Ms Gandhi is contesting from Sultanpur in Uttar Pradesh, where she is sitting MP. An estranged member of the Gandhi family, she is up against Ram Bhual Nishad, a Samajwadi Party leader backed by the Congress as part of INDIA bloc’s seat-sharing agreement. Ms Gandhi’s son Varun, sitting MP from Pilibhit, has been denied a ticket this time, apparently over several statements that did not reflect the BJP’s stand on key issues.

Manohar Lal Khattar: The former Haryana Chief Minister has been brought into the Lok Sabha arena by the BJP this time. He will be contesting from the Karnal Lok Sabha seat, held by the BJP for the past decade. Mr Khattar replaces sitting MP Sanjay Bhatia. The 70-year-old former Chief Minister is up against the Congress’s Divyanshu Budhiraja, who leads the Youth Congress unit in Haryana. The Sharad Pawar faction of NCP and Dushyant Chautala-led Jannayak Janta Party – BJP’s former ally – have also fielded candidates.

Mehbooba Mufti: Former Chief Minister of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, Mehbooba Mufti is her party PDP’s candidate in Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha seat this time. The Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha constituency, which replaces the Anantnag seat after delimitation, was to go to polls on May 7, but the polling was deferred due to bad weather. Ms Mufti is up against National Conference candidate and religious leader Mian Altaf Larvi. The PDP and the National Conference are both members of the INDIA Opposition bloc, but the two are now contesting each other after the tie-up collapsed over seat-sharing.