NEW DELHI — Indian voters are all set to cast their votes on Thursday in the fifth phase of the mammoth elections, staggered over six weeks. Both the ruling Congress party and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have huge stakes in 122 parliamentary constituencies. This phase covers largest number of seats in 2014 general elections. The southern state of Karnataka where all the parliamentary constituencies would witness polling would undoubtedly be the most exciting. In the state assembly election held 10 months ago the ruling Congress party captured power from the BJP in which for the first time since 2008 had succeeded in forming a government. However, the May 2013 assembly election victory for the Congress party was easy as the BJP's frontman and the former chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa had floated his own party and contested elections. His party made a major dent in the BJP vote share which benefitted the Congress. Now since Yeddyurappa is back in to the BJP fold, the parliamentary polls would not the same for the Congress party. Karnataka is one state in the country where the popularity of BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi would also be tested. It would be watched with keen interest as to how much difference he could make to fortunes of his party faced with Congress which emerged victorious 10 months ago. Apart from Karnataka, 20 of the 24 parliamentary constituencies in Rajasthan would be covered in Thursday's poll. In the 2009 general election the Congress had won 20 seats. However, its performance in the December state assembly election was disastrous. It is to be seen if the Congress could manage to recover some ground. In Maharashtra 19 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats are slated for voting. The Congress-NCP alliance had won 25 seats in the 2009 election. After the split in the Shiv Sena, it would be interesting to watch how much difference “Modi factor” would make in the state.
