The high-octane campaigning for the third phase of 2024 Lok Sabha polls in 93 Parliamentary constituencies spread in 12 States and Union Territories came to an end on Sunday evening with top leaders of the BJP-led NDA and the Opposition INDIA bloc making a last-gasp effort to woo voters. The end of the campaigning marks the commencement of a 48-hour silence period.
A total 1351candidates are in fray in this phase. The third phase of Lok Sabha elections is an important round for Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Uttar Pradesh.
It will decide the political future of three bigwigs - "Maharaja" Jyotiraditya Scindia, from Guna, "bacchon ke mama and behno ke bhaiyya" Shivraj Singh Chouhan from Vidisha and "raja" of Raghogarh Digvijaya Singh aka Diggy Raja from Rajgarh. Scindia, who lost his family seat of Guna as a Congress candidate in 2019, is hoping to regain the constituency on a BJP ticket this time.
Similarly, this phase will be a test for the Samajwadi Party's (SP) first family as well, with Dimple Yadav, Akshay Yadav and Aditya Yadav contesting from Mainpuri, Firozabad and Budaun respectively.
To ensure that the polling percentage is not affected due to the "harsh summer", the poll body has arranged shamianas and tents, additional fans and drinking water facilities to ambulances on standby and using adjacent rooms of the polling booth as waiting areas for the polling days.
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 go to polls on May 7.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the BJP charge, asking the Congress to give in writing that it will not hand over the quota for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes to Muslims.
The Congress and its allies accused the BJP of trying to tamper with the Constitution and do away with reservations.
The principal opposition party, which has promised to remove the 50 per cent cap on reservations, also asked the BJP to clear its stance on the issue.
Baramati in Maharashtra's Pune district is one of the most keenly watched seats in this phase as it is for the first time that two members of the influential Pawar family are contesting against each other.
Sharad Pawar's daughter and sitting MP Supriya Sule and nephew Ajit Pawar's wife Sunetra Pawar have been pitted against each other by the two factions of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) from the constituency.
This is also the first major electoral battle between the factions after the party split in July last year.
Of the 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat, the BJP's Mukesh Dalal has already won from Surat unopposed after the nomination of Congress' Nilesh Kumbhani was rejected over irregularities in the signature of proposers and other candidates withdrew.
Among the prominent candidates in the fray are Union Home Minister Amit Shah from Gandhinagar, as well as his Cabinet colleagues Mansukh Mandaviya and Parshottam Rupala from Porbandar and Rajkot, respectively. During the campaign, the BJP had to face the ire of the Kshatriya community over a remark made by Rupala in Rajkot. He had claimed several rulers from the community had "roti and beti" (marriage and trade) relations with the British and other foreign invaders.
Rupala is up against former Congress MLA Paresh Dhanani, who had defeated him in the 2002 Assembly polls. The Congress has fielded four sitting and eight former MLAs.
It is contesting the polls in alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). As part of the agreement, the Congress got 24 seats (including Surat), while the AAP has been given Bhavnagar and Bharuch.
Geniben Thakor, sitting MLA from Vava in Banaskantha district, has been fielded from Banaskantha against BJP's Rekha Chaudhary, making it the only seat in the State where the main contest is between two women.
This phase will witness polling in 10 Lok Sabha constituencies of Uttar Pradesh, including Sambhal, Hathras, Agra, Fatehpur Sikri, Firozabad, Mainpuri, Etah, Badaun, Bareilly and Aonla. Of the 10 seats that will vote on Tuesday, the BJP won eight in 2019 -- Hathras, Agra, Firozabad, Fatehpur Sikri, Etah, Badaun, Bareilly and Aonla -- while Mainpuri and Sambhal went to the Samajwadi Party. It will also see seal the fate of Union Minister SP Singh Baghel, UP Tourism Minister Jayveer Singh and Minister of State for Revenue Anoop Pradhan Balmiki.
In Mainpuri, an SP bastion that the party has never lost, sitting MP Dimple Yadav will take on Jaiveer Singh of the BJP. In Firozabad, BJP candidate Chandra Sen Jadon is contesting against Akshay Yadav and in Budaun, Aditya Yadav - the son of Shivpal Yadav -- is making his electoral debut against Durvijay Shakya of BJP. In Etah, BJP's Rajveer Singh, son of Kalyan Singh, won this seat in 2014 and 2019. The party has made him its candidate again in 2024. Devesh Shakya is the SP candidate while BSP has named Mohd Irfan as its candidate. In Badaun, Aditya Yadav, son of Shivpal Yadav, is making his political debut from Budaun. The BSP candidate is Muslim Khan.
The third phase unfolds with the emergence of Other Backward Classes (OBCs), prominently including Yadavs, Lodhs, and Kachhi/Shakya/Murao communities, exerting influence as decisive factors across various constituencies. Alongside, the enduring impact of Muslim and Jat demographics remains significant in select areas. The third phase has also seen some high-pitched campaigns by leaders of all parties.
Kalaburagi Lok Sabha constituency in Karnataka was seen as a bastion of the Congress for years, but after the party's veteran leader M Mallikarjun Kharge lost the 2019 Lok Sabha election from this seat, the political arithmetic changed. This time Kalaburagi, or Gulbarga, is again under the spotlight because it is not Congress president Kharge but his son-in-law Radhakrishna Doddamani in the fray. He will be taking on BJP's incumbent MP Umesh G Jadhav.
In Chhattisgarh, Raipur, Durg, Bilaspur, Janjgir-Champa (Scheduled Caste reserved), Korba, Surguja (ST) and Raigarh (ST), considered as Naxal affected areas, will also vote on May 7.
In the third phase, a total of 93 constituencies across 10 States and two UTs will go to the polls which 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). However, the polling date for the Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha seats in Jammu and Kashmir has been rescheduled due to various logistical, communication, and natural barriers affecting connectivity. The polling has been rescheduled to May 25, with the vote count scheduled for June 4.
In this phase, Gujarat had a maximum of 658 nomination forms from 26 Parliamentary Constituencies, followed by Maharashtra with 519 nominations from 11 PCs. Osmanabad Parliamentary Constituency in Maharashtra received a maximum of 77 nomination forms followed by Bilaspur PC in Chhattisgarh with 68 nomination forms.
The 14 segments going to polls on Tuesday in Karnataka are: Belgaum (Belagavi), Uttara Kannada, Chikkodi, Bagalkot (Bagalkote), Bidar, Haveri, Dharwad, Koppal, Bellari (Ballari), Raichur, Bijapur (Vijayapura), Davangere and Shimoga (Shivamogga) and Gulbarga (Kalaburagi).
Inclement weather affected the last day of campaigning by political parties for the third phase of polling in Assam on Sunday. Voting will take place in four Lok Saha seats in the state-Guwahati, Dhubri, Kokrajhar and Barpeta--on Tuesday.
The richest candidate in the South Goa constituency for the BJP, Pallavi Shrinivas Dempo, boasts wealth amounting to Rs 1,361 crore. Meanwhile, Union Minister Jyotiraditya M Scindia, contesting from Guna in Madhya Pradesh, possesses assets worth Rs 424 crore.
Voter turnout in Phase 1 and 2 of the Lok Sabha elections dipped to 66.14 per cent and 66.71 per cent, respectively, according to the poll body, making a decrease from the 2019 polls, which saw turnouts of 69.43 per cent and 69.17 per cent in the first and second phases, respectively.
