Senior BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, are in the running.Prominent opposition figures such as former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, NCP’s Supriya Sule, and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav are also vying for seats.
1. Narendra Modi: PM Modi is seeking a third term from Varanasi, where he is pitted against Congress leader Ajay Rai. Modi won the seat by huge margins in 2014 and 2019.
2. Amit Shah: Union home minister Amit Shah is seeking his second straight term from Gandhinagar, facing Congress candidate Sonal Patel.
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3. Rahul Gandhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is contesting from two seats: Wayanad and Raebareli. In Wayanad, he is up against BJP’s Dinesh Pratap Singh and K. Surendran, as well as CPI-M’s Annie Raja. The Baramati constituency will decide the future of the ‘Pawar’ legacy, with NCP supremo Sharad Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule facing his cousin Ajit Pawar’s wife, Sunetra Pawar.
4. Shashi Tharoor: Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, a three-time MP from Thiruvananthapuram, is facing a three-way contest against BJP’s Rajeev Chandrasekhar and CPI-M’s Panniyan Ravindran. BJP Tamil Nadu chief K Annamalai is aiming to make the party’s inroads in the state, contesting from Coimbatore against DMK leader Ganapathy P Rajkumar and AIADMK’s Singai Ramachandran.
5. Supriya Sule and Sunetra Pawar: The Baramati constituency ‘hot seat’ will decide the future of the ‘Pawar’ legacy. NCP supremo Sharad Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule is against his cousin Ajit Pawar’s wife, Sunetra Pawar, from the seat. The exit polls have predicted a tight contest.
6. K. Annamalai: BJP Tamil Nadu chief is contesting from Coimbatore, the former cop is up against DMK leader Ganapathy P Rajkumar and AIADMK’s Singai Ramachandran.
7. Rajnath Singh: Defence minister Rajnath Singh is seeking a third term from Lucknow, facing SP candidate Ravidas Mehrotra and BSP candidate Sarwar Malik.
8. Abhishek Banerjee: TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee is contesting from Diamond Harbour, pitted against CPI(M) candidate Pratikur Rahaman and BJP’s Abhijit Das.
9. Akhilesh Yadav: Former Uttar Pradesh CM Akhilesh Yadav is contesting from Kannauj, facing incumbent MP and BJP leader Subrat Pathak.
10. Asaduddin Owaisi: In Hyderabad, four-time MP Asaduddin Owaisi is facing a challenge against BJP candidate and actor-turned-politician Madhavi Latha.