Today in Politics: In final push, Modi, Kharge to step up Odisha campaigning; Rahul to hold rallies in Punjab

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge are going to canvass for their parties’ candidates in Odisha on Wednesday, the penultimate day of the campaign for the seventh andfinal phase of the Lok Sabha polls to be held on June 1.

PM Modi will address a rally in Mathurapur in South 24 Parganas district in West Bengal on Wednesday morning. He will then proceed to Odisha, where he is scheduled to address three public meetings in Mayurbhanj, Balasore and Kendrapara, according to the BJP.

Kharge will address the rallies in Balasore and Bhadrak on Wednesday, said the All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge for Odisha, Ajoy Kumar.

Voting will be held in six Lok Sabha constituencies and 42 Assembly seats falling under these parliamentary constituencies on June 1.

Rahul in Punjab, Priyanka in Himachal

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will address the election rallies in Ludhiana and Patiala in Punjab. State Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring is the party’s candidate from Ludhiana, where he will be up against AAP MLA Ashok Parashar Pappi and the BJP’s Ravneet Singh Bittu, the sitting MP who defected from the Congress ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

In Patiala, the Congress’s Dharamvira Gandhi, who defected from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), is pitted against Preenet Kaur – the sitting MP who switched to the BJP from the Congress – and the AAP’s Balbir Singh. Preneet is the wife of former chief minister and Congress stalwart Captain Amarinder Singh, who has been with the BJP now.

Meanwhile, AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will campaign in Himachal Pradesh, where she will address a rally in favour of party candidate Vikramaditya Singh in Mandi. The BJP has fielded Bollywood film star Kangana