Senior advocate and Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal claimed on Saturday that starting from the fifth phase of the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP has encountered setbacks, with voters shifting their focus from the Ram temple to issues like inflation and unemployment.
“The information I am receiving indicates significant changes in the fifth and sixth phases. The momentum seen in these phases was absent earlier. People are now discussing inflation, unemployment, and other local issues, which will significantly impact the BJP,” Sibal told ANI.
Sibal highlighted that in the 2019 general election, the BJP garnered substantial support from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes communities, but this trend has changed in the current election. “If the coalition of Muslims, OBCs, SCs, STs, and Yadavs forms, it will hurt the BJP. Don’t take their ‘400-plus seats’ slogan seriously; it’s become a joke,” he said.
The sixth phase of the Lok Sabha election is currently underway, with polling for 58 parliamentary constituencies across six states and two Union Territories. This phase includes eight seats in Bihar, all ten seats in Haryana, one seat in Jammu and Kashmir, four in Jharkhand, all seven seats in Delhi, six in Odisha, 14 in Uttar Pradesh, and eight in West Bengal. A total of 889 candidates are competing in this phase.
Odisha is also holding elections for 42 assembly constituencies simultaneously with the Lok Sabha elections. All parliamentary seats in Delhi and Haryana are part of this phase.
Key constituencies in this phase include New Delhi, North-East Delhi, North-West Delhi, and Chandni Chowk in the national capital, as well as Sultanpur and Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh. Other notable seats are Jammu and Kashmir’s Anantnag-Rajouri, West Bengal’s Tamluk and Medinipur, Haryana’s Karnal, Kurukshetra, Gurgaon, and Rohtak, and Odisha’s Bhubaneswar, Puri, and Sambalpur. The stakes are high for the BJP, Congress, Aam Aadmi Party, and other constituents of the INDIA bloc in this phase.
So far, polling has been completed in 428 parliamentary constituencies across 25 states and UTs during the first five phases of the general elections. Over 11.13 crore voters, including 5.84 crore men, 5.29 crore women, and 5,120 third-gender electors, are eligible to vote in the sixth phase. Approximately 11.4 lakh polling officials are involved in conducting this phase of the election.
The Lok Sabha elections will conclude on June 1 after the seventh phase, with voters from 57 constituencies casting their votes. The results will be announced on June 4.