The high-octane campaign for the third phase of Lok Sabha elections that saw the BJP-led NDA and the INDIA bloc fiercely attacking each other on issues like reservations and sexual harassment charges against JD(S) leader Prajwal Revanna concluded on Sunday evening in 92 seats spread over 11 states and Union Territories.
The stakes are significant for the BJP in this round as the party had in 2019 won an overwhelming majority of these seats, including all in Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, that will vote on May 7.
Over 1300 candidates, including around 120 women, are in the fray. Among the bigwigs are Union ministers Amit Shah (Gandhinagar), Jyotiraditya Scindia (Guna),Mansukh Mandaviya (Porbandar), Pralhad Joshi (Dharwad).
Former Madhya Pradesh chief ministers Shivraj Singh Chouhan (Vidisha) and Digvijaya Singh (Rajgarh) have also returned to the Lok Sabha electoral fray this time.
With the BJP bagging Surat unopposed, 25 seats in Prime Minister Modi’s home state of Gujarat will go to polls on May 7, besides 11 seats in Maharashtra, 10 seats in Uttar Pradesh, the remaining 14 of the 28 in Karnataka, seven in Chhattisgarh, eight in Madhya Pradesh, five in Bihar, four each in Assam and West Bengal, and all two in Goa.
The Union Territories of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu (2 seats) will also go to polls while election in the Anatnag-Rajouri seat has been put off due to logistic reasons.
Ten parliamentary constituencies of Uttar Pradesh will go to polls in the third phase of Lok Sabha elections on Tuesday, with all eyes on Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav’s family members.
While Dimple Yadav is aiming to retain the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat, which she won in the bypolls following the demise of her father-in-law Mulayam Singh Yadav, Akshaya Yadav, son of Ram Gopal Yadav, the national principal general secretary of SP, will try to reclaim the Firozabad seat, which he had won in 2014.
Aditya Yadav, the son of SP national general secretary Shivpal Yadav, is making his electoral debut from the Budaun Lok Sabha seat, which was represented by his cousin Dharmendra Yadav in 2014. Besides the Yadav family members, polling will be held to seal the fate of Union Minister SP Singh Baghel, Uttar Pradesh’s Tourism Minister Jayveer Singh, Minister of State for Revenue Anoop Pradhan Balmiki. Baghel, Jayveer Singh, and Balmiki are contesting from Agra (SC), Mainpuri, and Hathras (SC) Lok Sabha seats respectively.
In Maharashtra the battle for Baramati will be put to test as it votes on May 7. Ajit who split from the NCP led by uncle Sharad Pawar has fielded his wife Sunetra Pawar to take on three- time NCP ( SP) leader Sharad Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule.
