Lok Sabha polls | 9th phase: Seven most high profile battles

Voting is underway in 41 Lok Sabha constituencies in the final round of the national election. Counting of votes in all the 543 Lok Sabha constituencies will be taken up on May 16. Narendra Modi, Arvind Kejriwal, Mulayam Singh Yadav, R P N Singh and Sudip Bandyopadhyay among those whose fate will be sealed today.

Here's a quick look at key contests:

1) In Varanasi, two of most talked about politicians Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal are locked in a high-stake contest.

The Varanasi battle became the most watched electoral contest after Kejriwal announced his candidature against Modi, saying there was a need to defeat both Modi, and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi in Amethi.

While the BJP has made it battle of prestige, almost all other parties seem to be fighting this election to defeat Modi. Congress candidate Ajay Rai, a 'local' backed by Mokhtar Ansari's Quami Ekta Dal (QED), is also in the fray. The Varanasi contest is now the “mother of all battles” after Gandhi’s roadshow on Saturday.



2) Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav is contesting from Azamgarh (Uttar Pradesh). However, Azamgarh may not be a cakewalk for the SP chief this time as he faces a tough fight from  Bahujan Samaj Party's Shah Alam alias Guddu Jamali and BJP’s Ramakant Yadav.








3) Political heavyweights like Minister of State for Home R P N Singh from Kushinagar and Jagdambika Pal, who switched sides from Congress to the saffron party, from Domariyaganj are also trying their luck. BJP’s Rajesh Pandey is contesting from the Kushinagar seat against Union Singh.

4) Film-maker Prakash Jha is trying his luck on a Janata Dal (United) ticket from Paschim Champaran, more popularly remembered as Bettiah. His main rival is incumbent BJP MP Sanjay Jaiswal. 

Rashtriya Janata Dal’s leader Raghubansh Prasad Singh is contesting from his traditional Vaishali seat. Singh is opposed by politician Rama Singh of LJP and Vijay Kumar Sahni of JD(U).





5) In West Bengal, of the 17 seats in poll fray, the Trinamool Congress had won 14 in 2009 and Mamata Banerjee would be desperate to hold on to that tally this time around as well in order to reach her desired target of 30 seats.

Prominent TMC candidates in the race are Sudip Bandyopadhyay, Dinesh Trivedi and Sougata Roy besides celebrities like actors Dipak Adhikari (Dev) and Tapas Paul. Trinamool Yuva president Abhishek Banerjee, nephew of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, is also in the fray.  




6) On the rival side, CPI-M’s Subhashini Ali is among the key candidates. She is fighting from the Barrackpore seat.

7) BJP nominee magician P C Sorcar (Junior) and West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee (WBPCC) president Adhir Chowdhury, besides former West Bengal finance minister Asim Dasgupta of the CPI-M and former Union minister Tapan Sikdar of the BJP, pitted against each other in Dum Dum, are the key contestants in the last phase.