New Delhi: The fifth and final phase of the 15th Lok Sabha elections will conclude on Wednesday with 86 seats going to polls. However, there is no clear picture of who would form the next government
.
Elections would be held to all 39 seats in the key state of Tamil Nadu and four seats in Himachal Pradesh, two in Jammu and Kashmir, nine in Punjab, 14 in Uttar Pradesh, 11 in West Bengal, five in Uttarakhand and the lone one seat each in both Chandigarh and Puducherry.
The fates of political bigwigs P Chidambaram, Mamata Banerjee, Varun Gandhi, Jaya Prada, separatist J-K leader Sajjad Lone, Karunanidhi's son Azhagiri and cricketer Mohammad Azharuddin will be sealed in this last lap.
Speculation of a hung Parliament is rife but the struggle for power is mainly among the ruling Congress-led UPA coalition, the BJP-led NDA. The Third Front – which saw a dramatic birth – seems to be disintegrating.
Campaigning during the month long elections have been acerbic, with leaders attacking the character and qualities of one another while the common people gave vent to their anger by firing footwear missiles on the likes of none other than Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and BJP's PM hopeful L K Advani, among others.
A party or a coalition needs 272 seats in the Lok Sabha to stake claim to form a government.
The Lok Sabha has 545 members, but elections are held to 543 seats as two members are nominated from the Anglo- Indian community.
Polling has been completed to 457 Lok Sabha seats since the exercise began on April 16 amid stray violence that left over 20 dead. Results will be out on May 16.
THE NAMES
The final leg would see election of 86 MPs and among the contenders are Congress' P Chidambaram and Md Azharuddin, BJP's Maneka and Varun Gandhi and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, DMK's T R Baalu, A Raja, Dayanidhi Maran and M K Azhagiri, MDMK's Vaiko, TC chief Mamata Banerjee and SP's Jayaprada.
Congress' Mani Shankar Aiyar and Sajjad Gani Lone of People's Conference also feature in the list of prominent names in this leg, in which 10.78 crore voters can choose from 1,432 candidates including 93 women.
The prominent women candidates are Maneka Gandhi (Aonla), Mamata Banerjee (Kolkata Dakshin) and Jaya Prada (Rampur).
Chidambaram is contesting from Sivaganga, Azharuddin (Moradabad), Varun Gandhi (Pilibhit), Naqvi (Rampur), Baalu (Sriperumbudur), Raja (Nilgiris), Maran (Central Chennai), Azhagiri (Madurai), Aiyar (Mayiladuthurai), Vinod Khanna (Gurdaspur), Najyot Singh Sidhu (Amritsar) and Lone (Baramulla).
Elections would be held across 1.21 lakh polling booths.
THE NUMBERS
As many as 5,995 villages and hamlets have been identified as prone to intimidation and over 18,000 people troublemakers.
In Baramulla and Ladakh Parliamentary constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir, tight security arrangements have been put in place in view of poll boycott called by separatists.
Security forces have taken positions well in advance around 1,946 polling stations in the constituencies to instill confidence among the over 12 lakh electors, officials said.
Although there was no violence during election campaign, security forces have been put on maximum alert and the borders of the constituencies have been sealed.
There are 18 candidates in the fray in the two constituencies. In Baramulla, there are 13 contestants including the former separatist leader Sajjad Gani Lone, and five in Ladakh.
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