Lok Sabha Elections 2024 Phase 3: India in middle of its poll summer as voting begins across 93 seats

Lok Sabha Elections Phase 3: India is almost exactly in the middle of its seven-phase general election. With the completion of Phase 3 voting by the end of Tuesday (May 7) in which 93 constituencies across 11 states and Union Territories are going to polls, a total of 283 of 543 Lok Sabha seats would have completed polling.

At the same time, voters across all Lok Sabha constituencies in the states of Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Karnataka and Assam would have completed polling by the end of Phase 3 polling — leaving politicians from these states with political stamina and clout to campaign for their parties in the constituencies that will vote in the remaining four phases.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party has already won the Surat Lok Sabha seat unopposed in his home state of Gujarat in western India.

Of the 93 constituencies currently going to polls in Phase 3, the BJP is seeking re-election across 71 seats while the Congress is defending its record for re-election on fourseats.

In 2019, when the BJP won re-election for the second time under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the parties that now form the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) won 75 of the 93 seats going to polls on May 7. The parties that now constitute the opposition's Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) won 8 of these 93 seats, with the 10 remaining seats split between the undivided Shiv Sena (4), undivided NCP (3), Badruddin Ajmal-led AIUDF in Assam (1) and two Independent MPs.

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A total of 1,332 candidates are in the fray for third-phase polling on May 7. The BJP has fielded the most candidates (82), followed by Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party (79) and the Congress (68). The state of Gujarat has the highest number of candidates (266), followed by Maharashtra (258) and Karnataka (227).

Among the key politicians whose electoral fate would be sealed in the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs)are Union Home Minister Amit Shah (Gandhinagar), BJP's Shivraj Singh Chouhan (Vidisha), Congress party's Digvijay Singh (Rajgarh), NCP's Supriya Sule (Baramati), Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya (Porbandar) and AIUDF's Badruddin Ajmal (Dhubri).