The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress are contesting 435 and 420 seats in this Lok Sabha elections, respectively, and they are in a direct fight with each other in 373 seats, according to PRS India, an NGO.

The independent research institute also said that as many as 8,039 candidates are in the fray for 542 parliamentary constituencies, i.e., 14.8 candidates per constituency on an average.

The states with more than 30 Lok Sabh seats are Uttar Pradesh (80), Maharashtra (48), West Bengal (42), Bihar (40) and Tamil Nadu (39). These states together have 249 seats, which is 46 per cent of the Lok Sabha, PRS India said.

Among all the states, Telangana has the highest average number of candidates per seat with the Nizamabad constituency having the highest in the country at 185 candidates. Excluding Nizamabad, the state's average number of contestants per seat is 16.1, PRS India said.

After Nizamabad, the second highest number of candidate representation is seen in Belgaum, Karnataka, it said.

The five constituencies that have the highest candidate representation are from the southern states of Telangana, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

The NGO said that seven national parties together have fielded 2.69 candidates per constituency.

Among the five largest states, West Bengal, where five national parties are in the fray, has the highest representation of candidates from these parties at 4.6 per seat.

The recognised state parties together have fielded 1.53 candidates per constituency, the PRS India said.

It also said that Delhi and Haryana have a high number of candidates contesting from parties that have not been recognised as either national or state outfits.

--IANS

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