Maneka Gandhi To Mehbooba Mufti, Key Leaders Taking Poll Test Today

All seats in national capital Delhi are going to polls in the sixth phase today

A total of 889 candidates from six states and a Union Territory are going to polls in the sixth phase today. These include all the seven seats in national capital Delhi. Prominent candidates in this phase include former JNU students' union president Kanhaiya Kumar, now with the Congress, BJP veteran and former Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, four-time MP and former Union minister Maneka Gandhi and singer-turned-politician Manoj Tiwari.

Here's a look at key candidates in this phase:

Manoj Tiwari: The two-time MP from North-East Delhi is the only sitting MP in the national capital who has been retained by the BJP in this election. Mr Tiwari, who was a popular actor and singer in the Bhojpuri film industry before joining politics, has also served as the chief of Delhi's BJP unit. In the 2019 election, he defeated former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit by a margin of over 3.6 lakh votes. This time, with the AAP and the Congress joining ranks on the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi, the BJP leader is up against the Congress's Kanhaiya Kumar.

Kanhaiya Kumar: The 37-year-old first made headlines in 2016 when Delhi Police arrested him on sedition charges in connection with an event organised on JNU campus to mark the second anniversary of the hanging of Afzal Guru, who was convicted in the Parliament attack case. In the 2019 polls, he contested from Bihar's Begusarai as a CPI candidate, but lost to BJP's firebrand leader and Union Minister Giriraj Singh by over 4 lakh votes. Now with the Congress, Mr Kumar is up against BJP's Manoj Tiwari is North-East Delhi. Both candidates are vying for the votes of migrants from the Purvanchal region that covers easter Uttar Pradesh and western Bihar.