Lok Sabha Election Phase 5: Rahul Gandhi To Smriti Irani — Key Candidates And Battles

Voting for the fifth phase of the Lok Sabha election will take place on May 20, with 49 seats across six states and two Union territories going into the polls. Prominent candidates in the phase include Rahul Gandhi, Smriti Irani, Rajnath Singh, Piyush Goyal, Chirag Paswan and Omar Abdullah.

Polling will take place in 14 constituencies in Uttar Pradesh, 13 in Maharashtra, seven in West Bengal, five each in Bihar and Odisha and three in Jharkhand. A seat in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh will also have elections.

The phase will witness a showdown between the two factions of the Shiv Sena—the Shiv Sena (led by Eknath Shinde) and the Shiv Sena (UBT)—marking their first faceoff since the 2022 split in Mumbai.

Here's a look at the heavyweight battles in this phase:

After Wayanad went to the polls on April 26 in the second phase, Rahul Gandhi is now gearing up for another contest. He will be facing off against Bharatiya Janata Party's Dinesh Pratap Singh at the Indian National Congress' stronghold of Raebareli in Uttar Pradesh after it was recently vacated by his mother, Sonia Gandhi.

There were speculations that he would fight from Amethi, where he lost last time, and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra would contest from Raebareli, but the Congress finally decided to field him from Sonia Gandhi's seat.

Amethi, a historical stronghold of the Congress in Uttar Pradesh, witnessed a significant change in 2019 as the BJP's Smriti Irani emerged victorious over Rahul Gandhi, marking the end of the Gandhi family's prolonged dominance in the seat.

This year, Irani is set to fight for the seat against Congress candidate Kishori Lal Sharma, a staunch loyalist of the Gandhi family.

Union Minister Rajnath Singh is eyeing a hattrick in Lucknow as he looks to defeat Samajwadi Party candidate Ravidas Mehrotra.

In the 2019 elections, Singh secured a decisive victory against SP's Poonam Sinha with a margin of over 6.3 lakh votes. In 2014, he defeated Congress candidate Rita Bahuguna Joshi by 2.73 lakh votes.

Bihar's Saran will witness a battle between Rohini Acharya—daughter of Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Lalu Prasad Yadav—and the BJP's Rajiv Pratap Rudy in another high-stakes battle in this politically charged constituency.

Rudy has a strong track record in Saran, having defeated Yadav's kin in both the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Union Minister Piyush Goyal is making his electoral debut as the BJP's candidate from Mumbai North. He replaced incumbent Gopal Shetty as the party's choice for the constituency. Goyal will face off against Congress candidate Bhushan Patil in what promises to be an exciting contest.

The Kalyan seat in Maharashtra is considered the stronghold of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. It holds significant prestige in the Sena vs Sena battle.

Shrikant Shinde, son of Eknath Shinde and a two-time sitting MP, is contesting against Vaishali Darekar-Rane of Shiv Sena (UBT). Rane was previously associated with the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena before joining the Shiv Sena.

This high-profile showdown in the Sena stronghold will put the loyalty of the core party voters to the test.

Jammu and Kashmir is gearing up for a political battle in the upcoming elections, with Omar Abdullah, vice president of the National Conference, running for the Baramulla Lok Sabha seat.

Abdullah is competing against Fayaz Ahmad Mir, the candidate of the Jammu and Kashmir People's Democratic Party, and Sajjad Gani Lone from the Jammu and Kashmir People's Conference.

Uttar Pradesh's Faizabad Lok Sabha seat, where Ayodhya is situated, has become a prestige battle for the BJP, whose candidate and sitting MP Lallu Singh is pitted against the Samajwadi Party's sitting Milkipur MLA Awadhesh Prasad. The saffron party's 'Ram' narrative is being challenged by the INDIA bloc's 'Samvidhan' in this prestige battle.

Chirag Paswan, the president of the Lok Janshakti Party, is contesting from Bihar's Hajipur as a part of the National Democratic Alliance. He will be competing against RJD's Chandra Ram.

The late Ramvilas Paswan secured the seat in 2014. In 2019, Pashupati Kumar Paras from the same party won the seat by a margin of over 5 lakh votes.

The electoral battle in West Bengal's Hooghly is set to be a star-studded event as Trinamool Congress' Rachana Banerjee, who is known for hosting popular Bengali TV show Didi No. 1, competes against the BJP's Locket Chatterjee and CPI(M)'s Monodip Ghosh.

Hooghly, where one of the assembly segments is in Singur, is a significant centre for jute cultivation, jute industries and jute trade in West Bengal. In the 2019 election, Chatterjee emerged victorious with 6.72 lakh votes.

This time, Chatterjee is facing a tough contest against Banerjee, whose entry into the fray can be a game changer.

In Mumbai North-Central, sitting MP Poonam Mahajan has been replaced by the BJP and the ticket has been given to lawyer Ujjwal Nikam, who served as the special public prosecutor in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks and 1993 serial blast cases.

Nikam is competing against Congress leader Varsha Gaikwad.