The third phase of the Lok Sabha elections begins on Tuesday, with 116 constituencies across 15 states going to polls. All constituencies in Gujarat and Kerala see voting, with BJP president Amit Shah, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and several Union ministers among prominent candidates in the fray.
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The BJP faces a strong challenge in Uttar Pradesh, as the third phase of Lok Sabha elections will be fought in the “Yadav belt”, and Chhattisgarh, where the Congress swept the assembly elections just four months ago, winning 68 of 90 seats, reducing BJP to just 15.
Elections will also be held in Anantnag Lok Sabha seat in Jammu and Kashmir, where polling is being held in three phases. The Anantnag seat, from where PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti is contesting, has been without an elected representative for more than two-and-a-half years.
Kerala, the contest is primarily between the CPM-led Left Democratic Front, Congress-led United Democratic Front and the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance. In the 2014 elections, the UDF had won 12 seats, with the Left parties victorious on the remaining eight seats. The BJP is yet to open its Lok Sabha account in the state.
In Karnataka, the BJP seems to have their noses ahead in many of the 14 seats going to the polls even though it faces a tough challenge from the Congress-JD-S combine. With the completion of the third phase, the election process will be completed in southern states
The third phase of Lok Sabha elections will see polling in 116 seats across 15 states and Union Territories. Besides all seats in Gujarat (26) and Kerala (20), voting will be held in four seats in Assam, five in Bihar, seven in Chhattisgarh, 14 each in Karnataka and Maharashtra, six in Odisha, 10 in Uttar Pradesh, five in West Bengal, two in Goa, and one each in Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu and Tripura.
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