Lok Sabha Elections: Mahua Moitra, Akhilesh Yadav & Asaduddin Owaisi Among Key candidates in Phase 4

Lok Sabha Elections 2024: As the Lok Sabha elections enter their midway mark, the fourth phase of polling is set to take place in 96 constituencies across 10 states and Union Territories on May 13. A total of 1,717 candidates including some prominent ministers and MPs are in fray, whose political fate will be determined as voters in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, West Bengal, and Jharkhand head to the polls. Notably, all 17 seats in Telangana and 25 seats in Andhra Pradesh are up for grabs in this phase of the election.

Issues like reservations, appeasement politics, corruption and jobs dominated the battle of narratives in the fourth phase of Lok Sabha elections.

Prominent candidates in the fourth phase of Lok Sabha Elections 2024 are:

Akhilesh Yadav: Considered a stronghold of the Samajwadi Party, Kannauj is set for a fierce battle between SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and the Bharatiya Janata Party's incumbent MP and perfume trader, Subrat Pathak. The SP chief served as Lok Sabha MP from 2000-2012. He resigned from the Kannauj parliamentary seat in 2012 after he became the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. Kannauj seat has been considered a stronghold of the Samajwadi Party since 1998, but the seat witnessed a significant shift in the 2019 election when BJP's Subrat Pathak managed to secure victory.

Giriraj Singh: Union minister Giriraj Singh is contesting from Bihar’s Begusarai Lok Sabha seat, from where he is seeking re-election. Singh will have Communist Party of India's Awadhesh Kumar Rai Yadav as his opponent from the constituency. The region was once known to be a hotbed of Left Wing politics. It was even called the "Leningrad of Bihar", a reference to the Soviet-era city (now St Petersburg) where Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin heralded the Russian Revolution with the October Revolution. In the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections, BJP leader Giriraj Singh won the Begusarai seat for the first time with a margin of 4,22,217 votes. 

Nityanand Rai: Senior BJP leader Nityanand Rai is trying his luck from Bihar's Ujiarpur seat once again under the NDA banner. Rai is pitted against RJD's Alok Mehta, who is the Mahagathbandhan's nominee. He had won the 2014 and 2019 general elections from Ujiarpur as a BJP candidate, and prior to that, represented the Hajipur assembly constituency in 2000, 2005, and 2010. Additionally, during the 2016 Bihar Vidhan Sabha election, Rai served as BJP Bihar president.

Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury: Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury is contesting from the Behrampur Lok Sabha constituency of West Bengal. The Behrampur Lok Sabha constituency, one of the important and prestigious seats in West Bengal under the Murshidabad District, is a hot seat in this election. The TMC candidate, Yusuf Pathan, a former cricketer, is interestingly pitted against Chowdhury, a veteran MP who has held this seat since 1999. As a politician, this is a new battlefield for Yusuf Pathan. However, he is ready to fight against Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and assures that the people of Behrampur will support him as their new hope.

Mahua Moitra: Trinamool Congress' Mahua Moitra is fighting the Lok Sabha election from Krishnanagar constituency of West Bengal. She is contesting for the seat against BJP's newcomer Amrita Roy, who claims direct descent from Raja Krishna Chandra Roy. The erstwhile king had sided with East India company to defeat the last independent ruler of Bengal Siraj-ud-Daulah. Moitra of the AITC won the Krishnanagar constituency in the Lok Sabha elections 2019, securing 614872 votes and with a massive margin of 63218.

Asaduddin Owaisi: AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi is contesting from Telangana's Hyderabad Lok Sabha constituency against BJP candidate Madhavi Latha. Hyderabad is bracing itself for the big showdown between Madhavi Latha and sitting the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen MP. This is the first time that the BJP has fielded a female candidate from the Hyderabad constituency. Owaisi, who has served four terms in the Lok Sabha as the elected representative from Hyderabad since 2004, was previously elected as an MLA twice in the erstwhile undivided Andhra Pradesh.

YS Sharmila: YS Sharmila is contesting from Andhra Pradesh's Kadapa parliamentary seat as a Congress candidate.The Kadapa Lok Sabha constituency in Andhra Pradesh braces for a fierce contest as state Congress chief YS Sharmila is set to challenge her cousin and incumbent YSRCP MP YS Avinash Reddy. Sharmila is Andhra CM Jagan's younger sibling. After starting her political venture in Telangana politics, Sharmila merged her outfit, YSR Telangana Party, into the Congress and shifted base to Andhra Pradesh, where she was appointed as the state unit chief.

Out of the 96 Lok Sabha seats set to go to polls on May 13, 25 seats are from Andhra Pradesh, 17 from Telangana, 13 from Uttar Pradesh, 11 from Maharashtra, eight each from Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal, five from Bihar, four each from Jharkhand and Odisha and one from Jammu and Kashmir. Lok Sabha elections are being held in seven phases till June 1. Polling for three phases has already been concluded. Votes will be counted on June 4.