Lok Sabha Chunav 2024: In the third and another crucial phase for the Lok Sabha elections 2024, a total of 93 seats are going to the polls. While a total of 94 seats was to go to the polls in the phase 3, voting was not needed for Surat as the BJP candidate got elected unopposed. However, the Betul seat of Madhya Pradesh is going to polls in the third phase after polling was earlier postponed due to death of a candidate. Also, the voting for the Anantnag-Rajouri seat was also postponed to May 26, thus, 93 seats are up for grab in this phase. The 93 seats are spread across 10 states and 1 union territory.

Key Poll Planks

In the third phase the BJP-led NDA and the INDIA bloc of Congress fiercely attacked each other making muslim reservations, constitution and sexual harassment charges against JD(S) leader Prajwal Revanna issues to woo the voters. While the Congress accused the BJP of favouring a sexual abuse offender and trying to change the constituion, the saffron party has slammed the Congress for providing religion-based reservation to Muslims from the quota of SC/ST/OBCs. 

High-Stakes For BJP

The stakes are significantly high for the BJP in this phase because the party had in 2019 won majority of these seats including clean sweep in Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh. On the other hand, Congress is looking to make a big dent in these seats by promising several freebies and financial aids.

A total of 25 (out of 26) seats in Gujarat, 11 seats in Maharashtra, 10 seats in Uttar Pradesh, remaining 14 of the 28 in Karnataka, seven in Chhattisgarh, eight in Madhya Pradesh, five in Bihar, four each in Assam and West Bengal, and all two in Goa are going to the polls in Phase 3 on May 7. The Union Territories of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu (2 seats) will also go to polls in the third phase.

Phase-3 Key Candidates And Constituencies

Of the over 1300 candidates, the bigwigs include Union ministers Amit Shah from Gandhinagar, Jyotiraditya Scindia from Guna, Mansukh Mandaviya from Porbandar, Parshottam Rupala from Rajkot, Pralhad Joshi from Dharwad, SP Singh Baghel from Agra, Shivraj Singh Chouhan from Vidisha, Digvijaya Singh from Rajgarh, Basavaraj Bommai from Haveri, Badruddin Ajmal from Dhubri, Akhilesh Yadav from Kannauj, Dimple Yadav from Mainpuri, Ram Gopal Yadav’s son Akshaya Yadav from Firozabad, Aditya Yadav from Budaun, as well as Supriya Sule and Sunetra Pawar from Baramati.