- Sunday, May 19, 2024
Ninety-three constituencies across 11 states and Union Territories of India will vote in this phase.
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIA will go to the third round of its marathon national elections on Tuesday (7) when 93 constituencies of the popularly elected Lok Sabha of the parliament will vote. The phase will see fates of 1,351 candidates getting determined and some of the top names among them are home minister Amit Shah, the second most powerful leader in India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP); aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, who is also the scion of a former princely state in the current-day state of Madhya Pradesh; and perfume baron Badruddin Ajmal from the north-eastern state of Assam.
Madhya Pradesh’s former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is also contesting in this phase.
Overall, 11 states and Union Territories (UTs), provinces that are federally governed, will cast ballots in the third seat and that will include Gujarat, the home state of prime minister Narendra Modi and Shah. Both the leaders will cast ballots in the phase in Ahmedabad under the Gandhinagar constituency from where Shah is contesting.
Originally, 94 constituencies were set to vote in this phase but voters will not choose the winner of the constituency of Surat in Gujarat since the BJP candidate was declared after his opposition candidates were either disqualified or withdrew from the fray.
More than 172 million crore people, including 84 million females, will be eligible to vote in this phase. More than 1.8 million polling stations manned by 185,000 officials have been set up for the same.
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The first two phases of the elections were held on April 19 and April 26 when a total of 190 seats went to polling. Nearly 970 million people will vote to elect 543 parliamentarians in 36 states and UTs across India. Whichever party/alliance wins 272 seats or more, i.e., half of 543, will get to form the next government.
The current election is a direct fight between the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the opposition’s Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) which features the main opposition Indian National Congress. Modi’s party and alliance are looking to win their third straight mandate while the INDIA bloc, featuring more than two dozen parties, aim to prevent that from happening.
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Opinions though favour Modi with his personal popularity seemingly unhurt despite growing concern among common people over issues such as inflation and lack of employment opportunities.
The states that go to polling in the third phase are Karnataka (14 constituencies), Gujarat (25 constituencies), Uttar Pradesh (10 constituencies), Madhya Pradesh (nine constituencies), Assam (four constituencies), Goa (two constituencies), Chhattisgarh (seven constituencies), Bihar (five constituencies), Maharashtra (11 constituencies), West Bengal (four constituencies) and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu (both the UTs’ seats).
Voting will begin at 7am local time and conclude at 6 pm local time. Voters who are in the queue by the time polls close will get to cast their ballots even if that means continuing with polling for a longer period.
The results will be declared on June 4.
