Polling is underway for the third phase of Lok Sabha elections. Voting is taking place in 91 parliamentary constituencies, spread over 11 states and 3 Union Territories. These are Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar islands, Chandigarh and Lakshadweep. Polling, which started at 7 AM, will end at 6 PM except in Maoist affected areas. Voting is also taking place for 70 Assembly seats in Odisha.
A total of 1,419 candidates are in the fray for 91 Lok Sabha seats in this phase. Prominent among them areMeira Kumar, Kapil Sibal, Kamal Nath, Ajay Maken and Sandeep Dikshit of the Congress, Ajit Singh of the RLD, VK Singh and Harsh Vardhan of the BJP and Shazia Ilmi, Ashutosh and Rakhi Birla of the Aam Aadmi Party.
In Uttar Pradesh, voting is taking place for 10 of the 80Lok Sabha constituencies. These are Muzaffarnagar, Saharanpur, Kairana, Aligarh, Bijnor, Meerut, Baghpat, Ghaziabad, Gautambudh Nagar and Bulandshahar. 146 candidates including 14 women are in the fray for these seats.Polling is also underway for all 7 Lok Sabha seats in Delhi.
In Bihar, voting is taking place six of the 40 Lok Sabha seats will go polls in this phase. Polling is also taking place for all 20 seats in Kerala where the ruling Congress-led UDF and opposition CPI(M)-led LDF are locked in a fierce battle. Among the prominent candidates in the state are Shashi Tharoor, Kodikunnil Suresh, KC Venugopal, KV Thomas, Mullapally Ramachandran and PC Chacko of Congress and E Ahamedof IUML.
Voting is also taking place for all 10 Lok Sabha seats inHaryana, where a four-cornered contest is expectedbetween Congress, the BJP-led combine, Indian National Lok Dal and Aam Aadmi Party. Among leading candidates in Haryana are Deepender Hooda and Naveen Jindal of the Congress, Rao Inderjit Singh of the BJP and Yogendra Yadav of AAP.
Polling is also underway for the lone Lok Sabha seat in the Union Territory of Chandigarh where main contestants are sitting MP Pawan Bansal of Congress, Kirron Kher of BJP and Gul Panag of Aam Aadmi Party.
In Odisha, besides 70 Assembly segments, voting is taking place for 10 Lok Sabha seats. Prominent candidates for Parliamentary polls in the state are Giridhar Gamang,Hemanand Biswal and Bhakta Charan Das of Congress,Jual Oram of BJP and Dileep Tirkey of ruling BJD. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is contesting Assembly elections.
In Chhattisgarh, voting is underway for Bastar Lok Sabha constituency. Polling, which started at 7 AM, will end at 3 PM except at a few places.
