117 seats across 11 states and a union territory are voting today in the sixth round of the national election that ends on May 12. Five union ministers, Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj, Samjwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav are among the candidates in this phase.
Here’s a look at the key heavyweights today:
All India United Democratic Front chief Maulana Badruddin Ajmal is locked in a triangular contest with Debamoy Sanyal of the BJP and the Congress' Wazed Ali Chaudhury in Dhubri. Mr Ajmal is the sitting MP from the Muslim-dominated constituency in Assam.
R S Mooshahary, former chief of the National Security Guards (NSG) and Meghalaya governor, is contesting as a Trinamool Congress nominee from Assam's strife-torn Kokrajhar, where he is being challenged by Chandan Brahma of the Bodoland People's Front. The Bodo outfit has replaced its four-term MP SK Bwiswmuthiary.
Former union minister Syed Shahnawaz Hussain, the BJP's Muslim face, is sweating it out in Bhagalpur in Bihar. He faces a tough challenge from the RJD's Bulo Mandal and Abu Kaiser of the Janata Dal (United).
Union minister Tariq Anwar, a close confidante of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, is engaged in a bitter contest with the BJP's Nikhil Choudhary, the three-term MP, in Katihar. The NCP is part of the RJD-Congress alliance.
Former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's niece Karuna Shukla, who parted ways with the BJP in October and joined the Congress, is pitted against Lakhanlal Sahu, who has been fielded by her former party, in Bilaspur. The seat had been won in 2009 by former union minister Dilip Singh Judeo, who died in August last year.
Jammu and Kashmir People's Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti takes on sitting MP, Mehboob Beg of the National Conference.
The DMK's Dayanidhi Maran, who had to resign from the Union Cabinet in 2012 after his name cropped up in the scam relating to the Aircel-Maxis deal, is waging a difficult battle to retain the Chennai Central seat for the third consecutive term.
Another former union minister, TR Baalu's decision to shift from Sriperumbudur to Thanjavur has made things a bit difficult for the DMK. His main challenger is K Parasuraman of the AIADMK.
The DMK's Dalit face, A Raja, a prime accused in the 2G spectrum allocation scam, is testing his popularity in the Nilgiris. He has won the constituency two times in a row.
MDMK chief Vaiko, known as a strong votary of the Sri Lankan Tamil cause, is locked in a five-cornered contest from Virudhunagar in south Tamil Nadu. The MDMK is part of the six-party alliance put together by the BJP in the state.
Former Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh, who has now joined union minister Ajit Singh's Rashtriya Lok Dal, is contesting his first-ever Lok Sabha polls from Fatehpur Sikri in Uttar Pradesh. He faces a four-cornered fight.
Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav faces the toughest electoral battle of his life from Mainpuri in UP. He is being challenged by the BJP's Shatrughna Singh Chauhan, a former Army officer.
Union External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid faces an uphill task in retaining Farrukhabad in UP. He is locked in a four-cornered contest with the BJP, BSP and the Samajwadi Party.
Cricketer-turned-politician Mohammad Azharuddin realizes that shifting his constituency from Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh to Tonk-Sawai Madhopur in Rajasthan may not have made things easier for him. He faces a resurgent BJP.
Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj had won the Vidisha Lok Sabha seat in Madhya Pradesh in 2009 by a margin of 3.89 lakh votes. Her challenge would be to retain, if not better, the margin. She faces a formidable challenger in the form of Laxman Singh, younger brother of Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh.
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