LIVE | Phase 3 of Lok Sabha polls records 61.78% voter turnout

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday voted at a polling booth in Gandhinagar Lok Sabha constituency in the single-phase voting for 25 seats in Gujarat.

Modi reached the polling booth at Nishan Public School in Ranip locality of Ahmedabad city soon after the polling began at 7 am and cast his vote.

Union minister and senior BJP leader Amit Shah, who is contesting to retain the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat, was present when Modi reached the polling booth.

Voting for the second phase of Lok Sabha polls in Karnataka began on Tuesday in 14 constituencies.

Polling began at 7 am and will end at 6 pm.

A total of 227 candidates -- 206 men and 21 women -- are in the fray for the second phase covering the northern districts of the state where more than 2.59 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in 28,269 polling stations.

The Congress and BJP are locking horns on the electoral battleground again in less than a fortnight in Karnataka.

It's a straight fight between the ruling Congress and the BJP in these constituencies in the northern districts. The JD(S) is not contesting these seats and is supporting its NDA alliance partner -- the BJP.

The state has 28 Lok Sabha constituencies. The first phase of polling in the other 14 seats in most of the southern and coastal districts was held on April 26.

The segments where elections will be held on Tuesday are: Chikkodi, Belgaum, Bagalkot, Bijapur, Gulbarga, Raichur, Bidar, Koppal, Bellary, Haveri, Dharwad, Uttara Kannada, Davangere and Shimoga.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, BJP had won all these seats, defeating Congress and JD(S), who were in alliance and ruling the state back then.

Speaking to PTI, Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Kumar Meena said adequate security arrangements have been made for Tuesday's polling.

"Around 1.45 lakh polling officials have been deployed across the 14 constituencies. In addition, 35,000 civil police personnel, 65 companies of Central Paramilitary forces and armed police of other states will be deployed for the polling day," he said.

Besides this, 4,000 micro observers will also be on duty, and 17,000 polling stations will be covered by webcasting, he added.

Davangere has a maximum number of 30 candidates, followed by 23 in Shimoga while Raichur has the least - eight.

Former Chief Ministers Basavaraj Bommai (Haveri) and Jagadish Shettar (Balgaum), Union Ministers Pralhad Joshi (Dharwad) and Bhagwanth Khuba (Bidar) -- all from BJP; Congress' Geetha Shivrajkumar (Shimoga) -- wife of actor Shivrajkumar and daughter of former CM S Bangarappa, and AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge's son-in-law Radhakrishna Doddamani (Gulbarga), are among the prominent people in the fray.

Also in the contest are MP and veteran BJP leader B S Yediyurappa's son B Y Raghavendra, party's suspended leader and former Deputy CM K S Eshwarappa -- both from Shimoga, former Speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri and ex- Minister B Sreeramulu of BJP from Uttara Kannada and Bellary respectively, and retired IAS officer G Kumar Naik of Congress from Raichur.

Stakes are high for several Ministers in this phase with their children contesting.

Sons of Ministers Laxmi Hebbalkar and Eshwar Khandre-- Mrinal Ravindra Hebbalkar and Sagar Khandre-- are contesting from Belgaum and Bidar respectively, while daughters of Ministers Satish Jarkiholi and Shivanand Patil-- Priyanka Jarkiholi and Samyukta Patil respectively-- are in contention in Chikkodi and Bagalkot respectively.

Prabha Mallikarjun, wife of Minister S S Mallikarjun and daughter-in-law of veteran Congress leader Shamanur Shivashankarappa, is contesting from Davangere.

Polling began at 7 am on Tuesday for 10 seats in Uttar Pradesh, including high-profile Mainpuri, in the third phase of the Lok Sabha elections.

Over 1.89 crore voters will seal the fate of 100 candidates in parliamentary constituencies of Sambhal, Hathras (SC), Agra (SC), Fatehpur Sikri, Firozabad, Mainpuri, Etah, Budaun, Aonla and Bareilly, where polling will go on till 6 pm, according to the Election Commission.

It is an important phase for Uttar Pradesh's Yadav family.

The Samajwadi Party's (SP) Dimple Yadav is aiming to retain the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat, which she won in the bypolls following the death of her father-in-law and party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Akshaya Yadav, the son of SP national principal general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav, will try to reclaim the Firozabad seat.

Aditya Yadav, the son of SP national general secretary Shivpal Yadav, is making his electoral debut from the Budaun constituency, which was won by his cousin Dharmendra Yadav in 2014.

Polling during the day will also seal the fate of Union minister S P Singh Baghel, Uttar Pradesh Tourism Minister Jayveer Singh and its 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.

Rajveer Singh, the son of former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and BJP stalwart Kalyan Singh, is looking to score a hat-trick from Etah, which was represented in 2009 by his father as a candidate of the Jan Kranti Party.

In Bareilly, the main contest has narrowed down to the BJP's Chhatrapal Singh Gangwar and the SP's Praveen Singh Aron after the nomination papers of BSP candidate Chhotey Lal Gangwar were rejected.

In the third phase, the BJP has given tickets to five new faces -- Chhatrapal Gangwar from Bareilly, Durvijay Singh Shakya from Budaun, Anoop Pradhan Balmiki from Hathras, Vishwadeep Singh from Firozabad and Jayveer Singh from Mainpuri.

The first four replaced Santosh Gangwar, Sanghamitra Maurya, Rajveer Singh Diler and Chandrasen Jadaun. Jayveer Singh is the sole candidate in this phase who replaced a losing candidate from the BJP.

The BJP retained the winning candidates from Etah, Agra (SC), Aonla and Fatehpur Sikri. It also gave a ticket to Parameshwar Lal Saini from Sambhal Lok Sabha seat.

The Congress has fielded Ramnath Singh Sikarwar from Fatehpur Sikri, while its INDIA bloc ally SP has fielded candidates in the remaining nine seats in this phase.

Uttar Pradesh has 80 parliamentary constituencies, the largest number among all states. Polling in the state is spread across all seven phases from April 19 to June 1.

Polling began at 7 am for 25 of the 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat, and for bypolls in five Assembly constituencies in the state.

Voting will end at 6 pm at the 50,788 polling booths across the state, an official said.

The BJP has already drawn first blood with Mukesh Dalal winning the Surat Lok Sabha seat unopposed after the nomination of the Congress' Nilesh Kumbhani was rejected over irregularities in the signature of proposers and other candidates withdrew.

The BJP is looking to repeat its sweep of 2014 and 2019 in the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

Modi and Shah will cast their votes at booths in Ahmedabad city that fall under Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat. Modi will exercise his franchise at a booth in Nishan Public School in Ranip locality, while Shah will vote at Naranpura sub-zonal office in the city.

As per poll officials, a total of 4.97 crore persons, comprising 2.56 crore males, 2.41 crore females and 1,534 from the third gender, are eligible to vote in 50,788 polling booths in the single-phase Lok Sabha elections in the state.

These comprise 17,275 polling booths in urban areas and 33,513 in rural areas, EC data showed.

The EC said it has deployed 50,960 ballot units, 49,140 control units and 49,140 VVPATs for the Lok Sabha polls and assembly bypolls in the state.

Keeping in view the possibility of a heat wave on polling day, arrangements have been made to provide sufficient shade at all polling stations, an official said.

Voter assistance booths have been set up at all polling stations, he said.

Of the 25 seats, Ahmedabad (East) has the highest number of candidates at 18, making it necessary for the poll body to use two ballot units across its 1,820 polling stations. The lowest number of candidates, at three, is in Bardoli.

Navsari has the highest number of voters at 22 lakh followed by Gandhinagar and Rajkot, while the lowest is in Bharuch, as per EC data.

Among the prominent candidates in the fray are Union Home Minister 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.

Several leaders from the community had recently made an appeal to their brethren to forgive Rupala for the remark and vote for the BJP for the sake of the nation and PM Modi.

Voting is also being held in bypolls for five state assembly seats in the state, namely Khambhat, Vijapur, Waghodia, Porbandar, and Manavadar.

The Congress, which is fighting the Lok Sabha polls in alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party, got 24 seats (including Surat), while the AAP has been given Bhavnagar and Bharuch. Congress has fielded four sitting and eight former MLAs.

Polling began at 7 am for 11 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra, including Baramati, where Sharad Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule is pitted against Sunetra Pawar, wife of the veteran leader’s estranged nephew and Maharashtra deputy CM Ajit Pawar.

Polling will end at 6 pm at the 23,036 polling centres, set up for the third phase of the elections, an official said.

The seats where polling is taking place are Baramati, Raigad, Osmanabad, Latur, Solapur, Madha, Sangli, Satara, Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg, Kolhapur and Hatkanangale.

Prominent contestants also include royal scions Shahu Chhatrapati of the Congress in Kolhapur and BJP’s Udayanraje Bhosale in Satara as well Union minister Narayan Rane in Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg.

Altogether 2.09 crore persons are eligible to vote for 258 candidates in the third phase, the official said. There are 1,07,64,741 male voters, 1,02,26,946 female voters and 929 from the third gender in the third phase, he said.

In the fourth phase on May 13, a total of 2.28 crore voters will decide the fate of 298 candidates in 11 seats, namely Nandurbar, Jalgaon, Raver, Jalna, Aurangabad, Maval, Pune, Shirur, Ahmednagar, Shirdi and Beed Lok Sabha constituencies.

Prominent candidates in the fourth phase include minister of state for railways Raosaheb Danve in Jalna and BJP’s Pankaja Munde in Beed.

The 13 Lok Sabha seats where polling will be held in the fifth and last phase in the state are Dhule, Dindori, Nashik in North Maharashtra and Palghar, Bhiwandi, Kalyan, Thane, Mumbai North, Mumbai North West, Mumbai North East, Mumbai North Central, Mumbai South Central and Mumbai South.

Prominent candidates in the fifth phase include Union minister Piyush Goyal, lawyer Ujjwal Nikam, both of the BJP, and Mumbai Congress president Varsha Gaikwad.

Polling was held on April 19 in the first phase of the general elections in Ramtek (SC), Nagpur, Bhandara-Gondiya, Gadchiroli-Chimur (ST) and Chandrapur seats.

The first phase saw a voter turnout of 63.71 per cent.

On April 26, polling was held in the second phase of elections in Buldhana, Akola, Amravati, Wardha, Yavatmal-Washim, Hingoli, Nanded and Parbhani Lok Sabha constituencies.

The second phase witnessed a voter turnout of 62.71 per cent.

Voting began at 7 am on Tuesday for 9 of the 29 Lok Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh in the third phase of the general elections.

Polling will end at 6 pm across 20,456 polling stations, including 1,043 managed by women, an election official said.

Prominent candidates include Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia and former state chief ministers Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Digvijaya Singh.

Altogether 1.77 crore voters will decide the fate of 127 candidates who are contesting from Morena, Bhind (SC-reserved), Gwalior, Guna, Sagar, Vidisha, Bhopal, Rajgarh and Betul (ST-reserved) seats.

These nine Lok Sabha constituencies are spread across 19 districts.

Polling in Betul (ST) constituency was initially scheduled to be held in the second phase on April 26, but was deferred due to the death of a candidate.

Altogether 127 candidates, including nine women, are in the fray for the third phase. At 22, Bhopal has the highest number of candidates, while Bhind has the lowest at 7.

The voters include 92.68 lakh men, 84.83 lakh women, and 491 members of the third gender, while 1.66 lakh electors are 'divyangjan' (people with disabilities), 88,106 are above 85, and 1,804 others have crossed the age of 100 years, the official said.

As many as 5.25 lakh voters are in the age group of 18-19 years.

Polling is being held in 20,456 booths in the nine constituencies. These include 2,043 booths managed by women and 75 by Divyang employees.

BJP leader and Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia is seeking to reclaim the home turf Guna which he lost in 2019 when he was in the Congress.

BJP veteran and former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is contesting from Vidisha constituency, a saffron fortress he represented five times. He is facing Congress candidate Pratap Bhanu Sharma.

In Rajgarh, Congress veteran and former chief minister Digvijaya Singh is pitted against two-time BJP MP Rodmal Nagar.

In 2019, the BJP failed to win the Chhindwara constituency, the only saving grace for the Congress which retained it with party veteran Kamal Nath’s son Nakul Nath winning the seat.

Of the 29 Lok Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh, polling for 12 seats concluded in two phases on April 19 and 26. The remaining eight seats will go to polls in the fourth phase on May 13.