Today in Politics: LS poll campaigning for Phase 6 to end; Modi to start Punjab push amid farm unrest

The campaigning for the sixth phase of polling in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections is coming to an end on Thursday.

A total of 889 candidates will be in the fray in the 57 Lok Sabha seats from eight states and Union Territories (UTs) that will go to voting in the sixth phase on May 25. This will include all seven seats of Delhi and all 10 constituencies of Haryana besides several seats in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, among other states.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will start his poll campaign in Punjab with his first rally in Patiala on Thursday.

PM Modi will first address a rally in Bhiwani-Mahendragarh in Haryana, which is going to vote in the sixth phase. He will then proceed to Punjab.

Punjab BJP general secretary Rakesh Rathour said the PM will address three public rallies in the state on Thursday and Friday. Modi’s Patiala meeting will be followed by rallies in Gurdaspur and Jalandhar the next day, Rathour said.

The BJP has fielded four-time MP Preneet Kaur from the Patiala parliamentary constituency.

Polling for 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab will be held on June 1 in the seventh and final phase of the Lok Sabha elections.

Meanwhile, farmer leader Balbir Singh Rajewal has said that protesting farmers will show black flags to PM Modi when he visits Punjab for campaigning. A decision in this regard was taken at a rally organised by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) in Jagraon in Ludhiana district.

In context: Farmers owing allegiance to various farm unions have been upset with the BJP-led Centre for not accepting their various demands including a law on minimum support price (MSP) for their crops.

The farmers have also been angry over not being allowed to head towards Delhi, forcing them to camp at Shambhu and Khanauri