Uttar Pradesh

Narendra Modi: The outcome of elections in UP will be construed as referendum on Prime Minister’s policies, particularly the demonetisation.

Amit Shah: The BJP president faces the toughest test of his political career in Uttar Pradesh, where BJP has not been in power since Kalyan Singh government’s two-year rule had ended in 1999.

Mulayam Singh: Will it be sad end of career for the 79-year old leader, who is torn between his love for his son and brother while picking a successor to his legacy and the Samajwadi Party that he had founded.

Akhilesh Yadav: Will the 43-year leader survive the double whammy of fighting his own father and the political rivals and emerge as an undisputed leader of Samajwadi party? His return would signify a shift in caste based politics towards issues of development.

Mayawati: The BSP supremo is making a confident bid to return to power in the state which she has ruled four times for varying periods.

Rahul Gandhi: The Congress vice-president desperately needs a major victory to make his mark on the party and the national scene. He would be applauded even if Congress improves its tally in UP.

Punjab

Prakash Singh Badal: At 89, the five time chief minister is making a desperate attempt to retain power. His government and the family are battling the popular perception that both are involved in large scale corruption.

Amrinder Singh: The Congress leader is leading the charge against the incumbent Badal regime. He had emerged victorious at the end of a bitter factional feud within Congress to be nominated as a shadow CM and hence has greater responsibility to deliver.

Arvind Kejriwal: The rabble rousing AAP leader is hoping to make a major dent in Punjab elections to make his party a national force to reckon with.

Uttarakhand

Chief minister Harish Rawat had survived a BJP-engineered fall of his government. Will he be able to take on the BJP once again in the battle field?

Manipur

Irom Sharmila: The anti-AFSPA activist is expected to fight her first election against the incumbent Okram Ibobi Singh of Congress. Will Sharmila, who through her long hunger strike against the AFSPA had kept the debate on the relevance of this harsh law, make her electoral debut?