CRITICAL ROUND FOR CONGRESS

It is all set for the fourth round of polling in 96 Lok Sabha constituencies across 10 states and Union Territories. According to a political analyst, it is a critical round for the Congress.

One, because the BJP is not riding roughshod over the Opposition in this round; two, more seats are at stake where the BJP was a close second in 2019; also, a little over a quarter of the seats are swing seats; interestingly, out of the 21 swing seats, 11 were won by less than 1 percent of the votes cast; three, out of the 20 strongholds (seats not lost by a party since 2009) or a fifth of the seats slated to go to polls in the fourth phase, the BJP and the opposition won 10 each. In other words, the BJP and the opposition are on an even keel.

Fourth, if the Congress has to improve its national tally, it needs to win big in Telangana, which goes to poll in this round. The Congress will surely fancy its chances having swept the assembly election just six months ago.

The round will seal the fate of several prominent candidates like Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Union minister Giriraj Singh, TMC's firebrand leader Mohua Moitra and AIMIM's Asaduddin Owaisi. Under the lens are all 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana, all 25 seats in Andhra Pradesh, 13 in Uttar Pradesh, five in Bihar, four in Jharkhand, eight in Madhya Pradesh, 11 in Maharashtra, four in Odisha, eight in West Bengal and one in Jammu and Kashmir.

ASSEMBLY POLLS: Voting will be simultaneously held in all 175 Assembly seats in Andhra Pradesh, which is witnessing a triangular contest -- between the ruling YSRC, the Congress-led INDIA bloc and the NDA; the latter comprises the BJP, Chandrababu Naidu-led TDP and Pawan Kalyan-led Jana Sena Party (JSP). As many as 28 legislative assembly seats of Odisha are also going to polls in this phase.