Lok Sabha elections: BJP contesting 437 seats, highest ever in its history

NEW DELHI: The BJP has fielded 437 candidates in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the highest number of seats the party has contested so far and perhaps for the first time more than its principal rival Congress. The BJP had contested 427 seats in 2014 and won 282 of them, while the Congress had fielded candidates in 450 seats and bagged just 44. Political observers, according to PTI, say the BJP contesting on more seats than the Congress as a result of its expansion across the country post 2014. The party also lost its ally in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, where the party is contesting on all seats. Similarly, the Congress is contesting on less number of seats than the BJP this time because it has allied with more parties as compared to 2014. In Karnataka, where the party had contested on all seats in 2014, is now in alliance in with the JD(S). The party has expanded its alliance in Bihar with the entry of new partners. The seven-phase Lok Sabha elections started on April 11 and would conclude on May 19. Counting of votes will take place on May 23. Polling was held on Tuesday for 117 Lok Sabha seats spread across 15 states and Union Territories in the third phase. In the first two phases, election was held to 91 and 96 seats on April 11 and April 18 respectively. Polling for the fourth phase will be held on April 29. Voting has been completed for three of the seven phases of Lok Sabha elections. All southern states have voted to elect their representatives - save one - to the lower house of Parliament. While Andhra Pradesh and Telangana voted in the first phase elections on April 11, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry voted in the second phase on April 18. However, two days before the polling, President Ram Nath Kovind cancelled the election in Tamil Nadu's Vellore, on the Election Commission's recommendation following seizure of a huge haul of cash there earlier this month. Karnataka voted in the second and third phases (April 18 and 23) and Kerala in the third phase. Assembly polls in Andhra Pradesh were also held in the first phase. The Union Territories of Lakshadweep and Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which have one constituency each, also voted in the first phase. (With inputs from PTI)