Lok Sabha war heats up

With 29 former chief ministers, one serving chief minister and a former prime minister in the poll fray, the 16th Lok Sabha elections simply don't get bigger than this.
The country is now over halfway through its nine days of voting for a new parliament in the world's biggest ever election.
Narendra Modi, the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) candidate for prime minister, has been wooing voters with promises to rouse India's economy from its slowest growth in a decade and create jobs for its booming young population.
In the latest large opinion poll, taken in the first week of April, the BJP and its allies were forecast to win a narrow majority in the 543-seat lower house of parliament, compared with previous surveys predicting that they would fall short.
The next round of voting is on April 24. Voters of 117 constituencies in Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Puducherry will vote that  day.
Leading the VVIP pack is Karnataka, which witnessed as many as six former chief ministers (including former PM HD Devegowda) in the poll fray. The others are M Veerappa Moily (Chikballapur) and N Dharam Singh (Bidar) of the Congress, BS Yeddyurappa (Shimoga) and DV Sadananda Gowda (Bengaluru North) of BJP and HD Deve Gowda (Hassan) & HD Kumaraswamy (Chikballapur) of Janata Dal (Secular).
Karnataka is followed by Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, where former three chief ministers are in the poll battle. BJP chief Rajnath Singh is trying his luck from Lucknow, while SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav would be facing election test from Azamgarh and Mainpuri parliamentary constituencies. Jagdambika Pal, who has the dubious distinction of being the CM for one day, is contesting on a BJP ticket from Domariyagnaj.
The former chief ministers from Uttarakhand are all the BJP stalwarts Major General BC Khanduri (Garhwal), Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank (Hardwar) and Bhagat Singh Koshiyari (Nainital-Udhamsingh Nagar).
Some of the states which have two former CMs in the poll fray are: Jammu & Kashmir from where Farooq Abdullah (National Conference chief) and Ghulam Nabi Azad of Congress are contesting respectively from Srinagar and Udhampur. Similarly, two former chief ministers of Maharashtra (both Congressmen) - Ashok Chawan and Sushil Kumar Shinde are trying their luck from Nanded and Solapur parliamentary constituencies respectively.
The tiny state of Goa too has two ex-CMs — Churchill Alemao (Trinamool Congress) and Ravi Naik (Congress) in fray from South Goa and North Goa respectively. In Bihar, two former chief ministers — Rabri Devi of Rashtriya Janata Dal and Ram Sundar Das of Janata Dal (United) would facing the election test from Saran Lok Sabha seat and Hajipur respectively. In neighbouring state Jharkhand, former chief ministers — Shibhu Soren (of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha) and Babulal Marandi (Jharkhand Vikas Morcha-Prajatantrik) would be facing each other at Dumka parliamentary constituency. Ex-CM of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal (Delhi) would be contesting against BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi from Varanasi, while Sushma Swaraj is BJP candidate from Vidisha in MP.
Apart from this former chief ministers — Amrinder Singh (Punjab) is contesting against senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley from Amritsar, while Uma Bharti (ex-CM of MP) is BJP's candidate from Jhansi. Former chief ministers of Odisha (Giridhar Gomang), Chhattisgarh (Ajit Jogi) and Gujarat (Shankar Sinh Vaghela) are contesting the 16th general elections from the parliamentary constituencies of Koraput, Mahasamund and Sabarkantha respectively.
Voting runs until May 12 and results are due on May 16.
Congress, led by the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, is forecast to suffer its worst-ever defeat after a decade in power due to the economic slowdown, high inflation and repeated graft scandals. The party has ruled India for more than 50 of its 67 years of independence.