Lucknow, May 18 (Reporter) Campaigning for 14 seats in the fifth phase of Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh, which will seal the fate of several stalwarts including Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Union Minister Smriti Irani and former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, ended on Saturday. Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Navdeep Rinwa said that the polling on these 14 seats will be held on May 20 between 7 AM to 6 PM. He said that besides 14 Lok Sabha seats, by-poll for Lucknow East assembly, which fell vacant following the demise of sitting Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Ashutosh Tandon Gopalji. will also be held. He said that the 14 Lok Sabha seats where polling will be held in this phase, include Mohanlalganj, Lucknow, Rae Bareli, Amethi, Jalaun, Jhansi, Hamirpur, Banda, Fatehpur, Kaushambi, Barabanki, Faizabad, Kaiserganj and Gonda Lok Sabha seats. "Out of these, 10 seats are of general category and 4 seats are reserved for Scheduled Castes," he said. Rinwa said that these 14 Lok Sabha constituencies are spread over 21 districts, including Lucknow, Sitapur, Rae Bareli, Amethi, Sultanpur, Jalaun, Jhansi, Kanpur Dehat, Lalitpur, Hamirpur, Mahoba, Banda, Chitrakoot, Fatehpur, Kaushambi, Pratapgarh, Barabanki, Ayodhya, Gonda, Bahraich and Balrampur. He said that a total 2.7 crore voters, including 1.43 male and 1.27 crore female, are eligible to decide the fate of 144 candidates in this phase. He said that polling will be held at 28,688 polling booths spread over 17,128 polling centres in these constituencies. The fate of several political stalwarts, including Defence Minister, Union Home Minister Smriti Irani and former Congress president Rahul Gandhi will be sealed in this phase. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is seeking a third term from Lucknow, which had been the bastion of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), since 1991. He is being challenged by sitting MLA Ravidas Mehrotra of Samajwadi Party (SP). Rajnath had been elected from Lucknow, which was once represented by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, twice - in 2014 and 2019. The most interesting election is being witnessed in Rae Bareli where former Congress President Rahul Gandhi is being challenged by the minister in Yogi Adityanath government, Dinesh Pratap Singh. In the 2019 elections, Rahul Gandhi lost to BJP's Smriti Irani in Amethi. This time he moved to another traditional seat of Congress Rae Bareli after his mother Sonia Gandhi was appointed to Rajya Sabha. His sister and party's national General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has been extensively campaigning in support of Rahul. Congress Parliamentary Committee Chairperson and former MP Sonia Gandhi made an emotional appeal in favour of her son Rahul, but the issue which dominates the Gandhi family's bastion now is local versus outsider. In Amethi Union Minister Smriti Irani faces close confidants of the Gandhi family and Congress candidate Kishori Lal Sharma. While Smriti Irani defeated Rahul Gandhi from this seat in the 2019 general elections, Sharma has a long association with the Gandhi family and he served as the local representative of Sonia Gandhi in Rae Bareli for almost a decade. It may be mentioned that Sharma's candidature was announced on the last day of the nomination. Another interesting contest is being witnessed on the Kaisarganj seat where sitting BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh was denied a ticket after he got embroiled in controversy related to international wrestlers. While the BJP denied a ticket to Brij Bhushan, it made his son Karan Bhushan Singh as its nominee. Karan Bhushan Singh, who is making a foray into electoral politics, is pitted against Bhagat Ram Mishra of SP and Narendra Pandey of BSP. It may be noted that Brij Bhushan's elder son Prateek Bhushan is already an MLA from the Gonda Sadar seat. Union minister Kaushal Kishore is seeking his third term in the Mohanlalganj Lok Sabha seat. He is facing a challenge from former minister and SP candidate RK Chaudhary and the BSP nominee Rajesh Kumar. Chaudhry, who joined SP, was once the founder member of BSP now led by Mayawati. In Jhansi, former Union minister and Congress candidate Pradeep Jain Aditya is being challenged by the sitting BJP's MP Anurag Sharma. The BSP has fielded a new face and student leader on this seat Ravi Prakash Maurya. On Gonda's seat two times sitting BjP MP and erstwhile prince of Mankapur estate Kirti Vardhan Singh is facing a challenge from SP candidate Shreya Varma. Though Shreya is making a debut in electoral politics, she is the granddaughter of former Union Minister Beni Prasad Verma. Beni who served as the Union Steel Minister in the UPA government was initially the founder member of SP and was very close to party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav. Beni later parted ways from SP and joined Congress. In Fatehpur sitting BJP MP Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti is challenged by former SP state President and party candidate Naresh Uttam Patel. The SP candidate, who was a Deputy Minister in the Mulayam Singh government, is also close to SP Chief Akhilesh Yadav. In the Faizabad seat, which has become important for BJP after the construction of Lord Ram Temple, sitting MP Lallu Singh is seeking a second term. However, this time he is being challenged by sitting MLA and founding member of SP Awadhesh Prasad. In Barabanki, Congress has reposed its faith in Tanuj Punia against Rajrani Rawat of the BJP. Tanuj Punia, who is the son of senior Congress leader PL Punia, lost here in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls...////...