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Voting is underway in 121 Lok Sabha constituencies in round five of the national election that ends on May 12.
Here's a quick look at the top ten contests:
1) In Bangalore South, BJP MP Anath Kumar faces off Nandan Nilekani, billionaire co-founder of Infosys and the brainchild behind the bio-metric identification system Aadhaar card. Nilekani seems to be in an advantageous position because of Bangalore being an IT hub and he being a former corporate leader. Ananth Kumar is banking on the Narendra Modi wave and claims that it is a national election and the fight is between Modi and Rahul Gandhi.
2) In Hassan (Karnataka), former prime minister and Janata Dal (Secular) candidate H D Deve Gowda is pitted against three-time MLA, A Manju who is representing Congress. C H Vijayashankar enters the contest representing BJP, though he was initially upset about not being able to fight the polls from his home town Mysore. Deve Gowda is fighting his 15th direct election.
3) In Shimoga (Karnataka) Lok Sabha seat, former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa is fighting a tough battle. He has replaced his son and sitting MP BY Raghavendra as the BJP candidate. The JD (S) has fielded former chief minister S Bangarappa's daughter and daughter-in-law of Kannada thespian Rajkumar against him. She is banking on her father's appeal and her caste Idiga votes.
4) In Rajasthan, the limelight is on Barmer and Sikar constituencies, where BJP rebels Jaswant Singh and Subhash Maharia are contesting respectively as Independents. Singh entered the contest as an Independent against the BJP's Colonel Sonaram Chaudhary and the Congress' sitting MP Harish Choudhary. Chaudhary was earlier with the Congress.
5) Other prominent contests would be seen in Ajmer (Rajasthan) -- where state Congress chief and Union minister Sachin Pilot is fighting to retain his seat – and Jaipur rural - where former Union minister C P Joshi is fighting against Olympian Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore. In Jhalawar, Dushyant Singh, Chief minister Vasundhara Raje's son and a sitting MP, is pitted against Congress's Pramod Jain Bhaya.
6) In Patna Sahib seat, Bollywood actor Shatrughan Sinha is seeking re-election on a BJP ticket. Sinha is facing former Bhojpuri actor Kunal Singh who is contesting on a Congress ticket. In 2009 too, Patna Sahib saw a star-studded battle -- Sinha defeated Congress' Shekhar Suman by a landslide of 1.6 lakh votes. This time Sinha is in for a tough battle. Singh's biggest advantage is the anti-incumbency wave against Sinha who, as is widely believed, neglected his constituency.
In Arrah, former union home secretary RK Singh is contesting as a BJP candidate. He faces tough challenge from the RJD's Bhagwan Singh Kushwaha.
In neighbouring Jharkhand, former finance minister and senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha's son Jayant is debuting from the Hazaribagh constituency. His rival is another young candidate, Saurabh Narayan Singh of the Congress.
7) In West Bengal, a closely-fought contest is anticipated in the Darjeeling constituency between GJM-backed BJP candidate S S Ahluwalia and Trinamool Congress candidate Baichung Bhutia, the two representing the two sides of a bitter war over statehood for the hills.
8) For the Rashtriya Janata Dal, today's polls would be crucial since it is hopeful of winning the Pataliputra seat, where party chief Lalu Prasad's eldest daughter Misa Bharti is contesting against rebel Ram Kripal Yadav. Yadav is fighting on the BJP ticket. Lalu is banking on his traditional stronghold of Muslim-Yadav votes. The party is also expecting favourable results in Buxar, where its Rajput leader Jagadanand Singh is seeking re-election. Singh is facing BJP’s Ashwini Kumar Choubey.
9) In Madhya Pradesh, Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia is seeking re-election for the fourth consecutive term from Guna. He is pitted against the BJP leader Jaibhan Singh Pavaiya who is an old rival of his late father Madhav Rao Scindia in Guna. Jyotiraditya Scindia had first contested in a by-election from Guna in 2002 after the tragic death of his father in a plane crash.
10) In Uttar Pradesh, voting is going on in 11 constituencies. Former union minister and BJP candidate Maneka Gandhi is trying her luck for the seventh time in a Lok Sabha contest, from Pilibhit. Maneka, who last time won from Aonla, is back to her traditional seat.
