As the voting for the first phase of elections begin, here’s a look at key candidates contesting the election today.
1. Nitin Gadkari (Maharashtra): Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari who is contesting from Nagpur seat is possibly looking to make a hattrick this time. He had won the seat in 2014, defeating seven-time MP Vilas Muttemwar by a margin of 2.84 lakh votes, and retained the seat in 2019 by defeating current Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole by 2.16 lakh votes.
2. Jitin Prasada (Uttar Pradesh): BJP replaced Varun Gandhi from the Pilibhit constituency in Uttar Pradesh and fielded Jitin Prasada who joined the BJP in 2021. Previously, he got a Congress ticket from the Shahjahanpur constituency and had won the Lok Sabha elections. He was appointed union minister in the Congress administration after winning the Dhaurahara seat in 2009. Prasad is up against Bhagwant Saran Gangwar of the Samajwadi Party, and Anees Ahmes Khan of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
3. Tamilisai Soundararajan (Tamil Nadu): BJP candidate Tamilisai Soundararajan, daughter of Kumari Ananthan, a veteran Congress leader recently resigned as Telangana Governor and Lt Governor of Puducherry to return to active politics. She is the BJP's candidate for the Chennai South LS seat.
4. Karti Chidambaram (Karnataka): Sivaganga MP K Chidambaram is aiming for re-election from a seat his father won seven times, competing against BJP's T Devanathan Yadav and AIADMK's Xavier Dass.
5. K Annamalai (Tamil Nadu): In Coimbatore, BJP state president K Annamalai will face off against DMK leader Ganapathy P Rajkumar and AIADMK leader Singai Ramachandran.
6. Dayanidhi Maran (Tamil Nadu): Tamil Nadu's Chennai Central Lok Sabha seat has ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and BJP against each other. The DMK has fielded incumbent MP Dayanidhi Maran who is seeking to retain the seat, while the BJP has fielded Vinoj P Selvam. Chennai Central is considered a stronghold of the DMK.
7. Nakul Nath (Madhya Pradesh): Nakul Nath, son of Congress leader and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath, is seeking a re-election from Chhindwara. The seat has remained firmly with Kamal Nath, who has won the seat nine times since 1980. In the 2019 polls, though the BJP bagged 28 seats out of the state's 29, it failed to wrest Chhindwara, where Nakul beat the BJP's candidate by 37,536 votes to emerge as the lone Congress MP from the state.
8. Imran Masood (Uttar Pradesh): One of the most crucial Lok Sabha seats from Western Uttar Pradesh has Imran Masood, the nominee of the Congress-SP alliance. Haji Fazlur Rehman from the Bahujan Samaj Party is currently the MP from Saharanpur. He will be contesting against Raghav Lakhanpal Sharma of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and Majid Ali of the Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP). Masood is the nephew of nine-term MP (five-term member of the Lok Sabha and four-term member of the Rajya Sabha) Rashid Masood.
9. Ruchi Veera (Uttar Pradesh): Ruchi Veera from Samajwadi Party is contesting from the Moradabad Lok Sabha constituency. She was booked for violating model code of conduct after addressing a meeting without permission. She was earlier elected as MLA from Bijnor in bypoll in 2014, was suspended in 2015 by her party. She briefly joined BSP and unsuccessfully contested from Bijnor in 2017 before rejoining SP.
10. Chandra Shekhar Azad (Uttar Pradesh): Azad from ASP-KR, a prominent leader from Uttar Pradesh who is contesting solo from Nagina constituency in the state which is one of the eight out of 80 constituencies that is voting in the first phase. He is known for his work for Dalit community and founded the Bhim Army in 2014. He founded Azad Samaj Party- Kanshi Ram (ASP-KR) in 2020. The party has fielded candidates from 50 Lok Sabha seats.
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