Campaigning for the fourth phase of Lok Sabha elections, along with single-phase Assembly Polls in Andhra Pradesh and first phase of Assembly Elections in Odisha will end this evening.
Voting in the fourth phase will take place on Monday in 96 Lok Sabha Constituencies spread across 9 states and a Union Territory. Voting will be held in 13 seats in Uttar Pradesh, 11 seats in Maharashtra, 8 seats each in Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal, 5 seats in Bihar, 4 seats each in Jharkhand and Odisha and one seat in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir will be held in this phase. Andhra Pradesh with 25 parliamentary seats and Telangana with 17 seats will go to polls in a single phase in this phase.
Simultaneously, Legislative Assembly Elections for all 175 seats of Andhra Pradesh and 28 out of 147 seats of Odisha will also be held on Monday. Top leaders of several political parties are on a whirlwind tour of various constituencies doing back to back rallies and meetings to woo voters. Prime Minister and senior BJP leader Narendra Modi today said Congress will cease to be a recognised opposition party in the Lok Sabha after the declaration of General Elections’ results on the 4th of June. Addressing an election rally at Phulbani in Kandhamal district of Odisha this morning, Mr Modi said the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) will win more than 400 Lok Sabha seats this election and the Congress party will manage to win less than 50 seats. He said, due to the weak mindset of Congress, the people of Jammu and Kashmir had struggled for decades. He said, India will never forget the times when the country used to have frequent terrorist attacks and the Congress leaders used to sit with the perpetrators of terrorism.
Mr Modi also said that after the 26/11 attacks, Congress did not set any inquiry on the attacks for fear of upsetting its vote bank. Attacking the Congress for making the countrymen afraid of Pakistan for possessing atom bombs, Mr Modi said the economic condition of Pakistan is such that it is trying to sell the atom bombs to other countries to come out of the precarious situation. Mr Modi also hits out at Odisha Chief Minister and BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik and his government over the missing Ratna Bhandar keys of Shree Jagannath Temple in Puri. He said that once the BJP government is formed in Odisha, it will ensure that the sanctity of the Ratna Bhandar is established. The Prime Minister, who is on a two-day electioneering tour to Odisha, is scheduled to address two more public meetings in Balangir and Bargarh parliamentary constituencies this afternoon.
Prime Minister and senior BJP leader Narendra Modi addressed a public meeting at Kandhamal in Odisha this morning. He will also address rallies at Balangir and Bargarh parliamentary constituencies in the state. He will also hold an election rally at Chatra in Jharkhand. BJP National President JP Nadda held a road show in Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh. Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi is addressing a rally in the tribal-dominated Nandurbar district of North Maharashtra. Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will address a public meeting at Kadapa Lok Sabha constituency in Andhra Pradesh.
The BJP is contesting in 10 Assembly and 6 Lok Sabha constituencies in the single-phase assembly and Parliamentary elections to be held on Monday in Andhra Pradesh.
