1st phase of LS polls: 13 key constituencies voting on April 11

A total of 20 states and Union territories will vote in the first phase of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections on Thursday (April 11). Polling will be held in 91 constituencies.

The state and UTs going to polls are Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jammu and Kashmir, Lakshadweep, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Sikkim, Telangana, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal. Of the large states, only Andhra Pradesh and Telangana will see polling for all their constituencies on April 11, with elections in the remaining states being spread across multiple phases.

In addition to the Lok Sabha polls, four states will also vote in assembly elections on the same day. These are Andhra Pradesh (all 175 constituencies), Arunachal Pradesh (all 60 seats), Odisha (only 28 seats) and Sikkim (all 32 seats). Furthermore, bypolls will be held for five vacant assembly constituencies spread across Bihar, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland.

In this article, THE WEEK presents 13 key constituencies from across the states going to polls on April 11:

Kairana (Uttar Pradesh): In 2018, Kairana was the site of a keenly contested bypoll between the BJP and the newly formed 'Mahagathbandhan' of the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and the Rashtriya Lok Dal. The bypoll was necessitated by the death of BJP MP Hukum Singh, who won Kairana in 2014. The RLD candidate, Tabassum Hasan, won the Kairana bypoll, defeating Hukum's daughter, Mriganka Singh, by nearly 50,000 votes. Tabassum was the wife of late MP Munawar Hasan.

In 2014, Hukum won the constituency, beating Nahid Hasan, the son of Tabassum and Munawar. In 2009, Tabassum had won the Kairana Lok Sabha seat, fighting on a BSP ticket. Her rival then was Hukum, whom she defeated by around 20,000 votes.

In 2019, Tabassum is the Mahagathbandhan's candidate. She will be facing BJP's Pradeep Choudhary, an MLA, and Harendra Singh Malik of the Congress. In the 2018 bypoll, the Congress had supported Tabassum.

Muzaffarnagar (Uttar Pradesh): Muzaffarnagar was the site of communal violence in September 2013 that left over 60 people dead and triggered polarisation between the Hindu Jat and Muslim communities. Sanjeev Kumar Balyan of the BJP won the constituency in 2014, defeating his nearest rival, Kadir Rana of the BSP, by over 4 lakh votes. Rana had won the constituency in 2009, defeating RLD's Anuradha Chaudhary.

This time, Balyan's main rival will be RLD patriarch Ajit Singh, who is supported by the BSP and SP.

Nagpur (Maharashtra): Nagpur will be a keenly watched constituency as the incumbent MP is Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, regarded by some as being a possible prime ministerial candidate if the BJP falls short of the majority mark. In 2014, Gadkari won the Nagpur seat by a margin of 2.8 lakh votes, beating Vilas Muttemwar of the Congress. Muttemwar had won from Nagpur four straight times from 1998 till 2009, defeating four different BJP candidates.

Gadkari's main rival is Nana Patole of the Congress. Patole had won the Bhandara-Gondiya seat on a BJP ticket in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, but soon became a critic of the Narendra Modi government. Patole had rejoined the Congress in January 2018 after he quit the BJP. Patole had left the Congress, with which he had won multiple assembly terms, shortly before the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

Nizamabad (Telangana): Constituencies are usually considered high profile when a 'big name' contests. Nizamabad is in this list for another reason: the big number of candidates! As many as 185 candidates are on the ballot in Nizamabad. Nearly 180 of these are farmers who are contesting against incumbent MP Kalvakuntla Kavitha, who is also the daughter of Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao.

Kavitha won the Nizamabad constituency in 2014, beating Madhu Yashki Goud of the Congress by over 1.5 lakh votes. Goud had won the Nizamabad constituency in 2004 and 2009. He is contesting against Kavitha in this election also.

Secunderabad (Telangana): Secunderabad is considered a 'traditional seat' of the BJP in Telangana, one of the few it has in the region. The BJP has won the Secunderabad seat four times in the seven Lok Sabha polls since 1991. Bandaru Dattatreya was the BJP candidate in all those seven elections. He won the 2014 Lok Sabha poll, defeating M. Anjan Kumar Yadav of the Congress. Yadav had defeated Dattatreya in the 2009 and 2004 elections.

For 2019, the BJP had replaced Dattatreya with Telangana BJP chief G. Kishen Reddy. Yadav is the Congress candidate this time also. The TRS has put a charismatic challenger against the BJP and Congress. Talasani Sai Kiran Yadav is 32 years old and is the son of state government minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav.

Hyderabad (Telangana): The Hyderabad constituency has been represented by persons with an 'Owaisi' surname from the AIMIM from 1984—nine straight elections. After his father, Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi, represented the constituency for six terms, Asaduddin Owaisi has won the Hyderabad seat since 2004. In 2014, Asaduddin defeated Dr. Bhagavanth Rao of the BJP by a margin of over 2 lakh votes. In 2009, Asaduddin had won from Hyderabad, defeating Zahid Ali Khan of the TDP.

This time too, Asaduddin and Rao are contesting, with the TRS announcing support for the incumbent MP.

Jammu (Jammu and Kashmir): Jammu was one of three seats won by the BJP in Jammu and Kashmir in 2014, its best-ever performance in the state. Jugal Kishore of the BJP won Jammu in 2014, defeating Madan Lal Sharma of the Congress by nearly 2.5 lakh votes. Sharma had won Jammu in the 2004 and 2009 elections, beating BJP candidates. This time, Kishore is contesting against Raman Bhalla of the Congress.

The BJP has suffered a dent in popularity in the Jammu region following the party's ill-fated alliance with the PDP to run a coalition government in the state. In addition, the BJP's handling of the Kathua rape and murder case also angered supporters of the saffron party. Furthermore, as a favour to the Congress, the National Conference and PDP are not putting up candidates in Jammu to avoid a split in the region's Muslim votes.

Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh): Visakhapatnam is regarded as being the most cosmopolitan city in Andhra Pradesh. Daggubati Purandeswari, daughter of TDP founder N.T. Rama Rao, is the BJP's candidate for Visakhapatnam. Purandeswari had been in the Congress till 2014, when she joined the BJP. She had served as a minister of state in the Manmohan Singh government. Purandeswari won the constituency in 2009 on a Congress ticket.

K. Hari Babu of the BJP won from Visakhapatnam in 2014. Contesting against Purandeswari is Pedada Ramani Kumari, the chief of the Mahila Congress in Andhra Pradesh. M.V. Sribharat of the TDP is expected to be another key candidate.

Vijayawada (Andhra Pradesh): It is a battle of business tycoons in Vijayawada as the candidates of the TDP and YSRCP are both prominent entrepreneurs. Incumbent MP Kesineni Srinivas of the TDP won from Vijayawada after beating YSRCP's Koneru Rajendra Prasad in 2014. Vijayawada used to be considered a traditional Congress seat, with Rajagopal Lagadapati of the grand old party winning from there in 2004 and 2009.

This time, Srinivas is contesting against Potuluri Vara Prasad of the YSRCP, who owns the PVP Cinema production company.

Bastar (Chhattisgarh): This Maoist-affected constituency has been a BJP stronghold for over 20 years now. Baliram Kashyap of the BJP won the seat in four Lok Sabha polls from 1998 to 2009. After his death, his son, Dinesh, won the byelection (2011) and the Parliamentary election (2014).

For the 2019 election, the BJP nominated Bai Duram Kashyap, while the Congress has fielded Deepak Baij. Given its massive victory in the Chhattisgarh assembly polls in late 2018, the Congress will strive to improve its performance in this saffron stronghold.

Tezpur (Assam): Tezpur has attracted attention not for who is contesting, but for who is not! Assam Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who is widely regarded as being a key architect behind the BJP's expansion in the northeast, was expected to stand from Tezpur, but was asked to be engaged in party work.

Tezpur had seen the Congress win six consecutive polls from 1985 to 2004, but the grand old party has lost the Lok Sabha constituency since then. Ram Prasad Sarmah of the BJP won Tezpur in 2014, while Joseph Toppo of the AGP won in 2009.

In 2019, the BJP has nominated Pallab Lochan Das, a minister in the Sarbananda Sonowal government. Like Himanta Biswa Sarma, Das, too, had been with the Congress before joining the BJP in 2015. The Congress has fielded G.V.K. Bhanu, a senior bureaucrat, who retired last year.

Kaliabor (Assam): If Hyderabad is the pocket borough of the Owaisi family, Kaliabor is home to the Gogoi clan! Since 1991, a Gogoi has represented Kaliabor in every Lok Sabha, except for a brief interlude from 1996 to 1998, when Tarun Gogoi lost to an AGP candidate.

When Tarun resigned his Parliamentary seat to become chief minister of Assam, his brother, Dip Gogoi, won a bypoll in 2002 and Lok Sabha polls in 2004 and 2009 from Kaliabor. In 2014, Tarun's son, Gaurav Gogoi, contested and won from Kaliabor, defeating the BJP's Mrinal Kumar Saikia by over 90,000 votes.

Winning Kaliabor is considered a “prestige” issue for the BJP as it seeks to curtail the visibility of Tarun and Gaurav, key leaders of the Congress in Assam. Contesting against Gaurav will be Moni Madhab Mahanta of the AGP, the BJP's ally. Mahanta had been vice-president of the influential All Assam Students Union (AASU). Interestingly, Mahanta had been a vocal critic of the BJP's move to implement the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill.

Gaya (Bihar): Former Bihar chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi will be contesting for the RJD-led alliance from Gaya. Manjhi, who was appointed chief minister by Nitish Kumar in 2014, resigned after a public spat with the JD(U) chief. Jitan Ram floated his Hindustani Awam Morcha, which was briefly allied with the BJP, in 2015. Jitan Ram joined hands with the RJD alliance in 2018. Since 1999, the seat has been won by members of the Manjhi mahadalit community.

Hari Manjhi of the BJP had won from Gaya in 2009 and 2014, defeating Ramji Manjhi of the RJD. This year, as part of the BJP-JD(U) alliance, the ticket for Gaya has been issued to JD(U)'s Vijay Kumar Manjhi.