LS polls
93 Lok Sabha seats across 11 states, UTs to vote in phase 3; Amit Shah in fray from Gujarat's Gandhinagar
New Delhi/IBNS: Polling in 93 constituencies across 10 states and two Union Territories will be held on Tuesday as the third of the mammoth seven-phase Lok Sabha Election rolls around.
The election in the Anantnag-Rajouri constituency in Jammu and Kashmir has been postponed to May 25 after the BJP flagged concern about the weather that forced shut a tunnel connecting the two ends of the constituency.
The Election Commission has called upon voters to turn out in greater numbers at polling stations and vote with responsibility and pride.
The states going to polls in phase 3 include Assam (4 seats), Bihar (5), Chhattisgarh (7), Goa (2), Gujarat (26), Karnataka (14), Madhya Pradesh (8), Maharashtra (11), Uttar Pradesh (10), West Bengal (4), Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu (2).
Photo courtesy: PIB
Most of the BJP strongholds will go to polls in this phase. With this coming to an end, polling on more than half of the 543 parliamentary seats would have voted.
In 2019, the saffron party won 72 of the 93 seats going to polls in this phase of which 26 of them were in Gujarat alone.
The other state where the BJP had done extremely well, Karnataka, could be a dark horse given the massive sex scandal that has hit BJP ally Janata Dal-Secular.
Polling will also be held in Betul, Madhya Pradesh, where the election due on Phase 2 was postponed following the death of a candidate from Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party.
Key candidates for this phase include Union ministers Amit Shah from Gujarat's Gandhinagar, Jyotiraditya Scindia from Guna, Madhya Pradesh, Pralhad Joshi from Karnataka's Dharwad and former Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan from Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh.
Photo courtesy: Amit Shah
The key Opposition members in the fray include Samajwadi Party's Dimple Yadav from Mainpuri in Uttar Pradesh; Congress's Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury from Berhampore, West Bengal, and Digvijaya Singh from Rajgarh, Madhya Pradesh; NCP's Supriya Sule from Maharashtra's Baramati. Perfume baron Badruddin Ajmal of AIDUF is contesting from Assam's Dhubri.
Over 17.24 crore voters including 8.85 crore males and 8.39 crore females will exercise their franchise in this phase.
Ahead of phase three, the ECI has partnered with four major Telecom Service Providers—Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd., Bharti Airtel Limited, Jio Telecommunication, and Vodafone-Idea Ltd. to facilitate messages, and voice calls featuring national and state icons, before and on polling days, to encourage voter participation.
The commission also appealed to all organisations, startups, and unicorns to actively participate in the outreach programme and become ambassadors and influencers of the ECI.
The remaining four phases of polls will continue till the 1st of June with the counting of votes scheduled for June 4.
Polling for 189 seats was completed in the first two phases of the general elections. Phase 3 will witness the visit of a large number of foreign delegates to experience India’s polling process and management. 75 delegates from 23 countries will visit polling stations in six states, as part of the International Election Visitor Programme.
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