New Delhi: India has voted in the third phase of polling for the Lok Sabha. A hundred and seven seats in 9 states and 2 Union Territories have been decided. This phase is crucial for the BJP, as it decides the outcome in those states where the party is in power.
At the end of polling at 5 pm, the outcome of the 2/3rd of the seats in the Lok Sabha has been decided. That is 372 of the 543 seats. The heavyweights whose fate has been sealed include LK Advani, Sonia Gandhi, JDU chief Sharad Yadav, Deve Gowda and Jaswant Singh.
L K Advani, the BJP's prime ministerial candidate, cast his vote this morning. He is contesting from Gandhinagar in Gujarat. Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi was one of the other early voters on Thursday. He came out to cast his vote in Gandhinagar, where L K Advani is contesting. Modi said Gujarat would vote the BJP back by a huge margin.
Earlier, as the polling got underway, Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers clashed after booth-capturing in Morena in Madhya Pradesh. The workers of both the parties tried to kidnap the presiding officer in Morena as well. The incident has also led to exchange of fire between the workers.
However, braving sizzling temperatures, voters came out in sizeable numbers to exercise their franchise in the polls in nine states and two Union Territories, which was by and large peaceful barring few incidents.
The seats in states and Union Territories that went to polls on Thursday are - 25 seats in Gujarat, 16 in Madhya Pradesh, 15 in Uttar Pradesh, 14 in West Bengal, 11 in Bihar, 11 in Karnataka, 10 in Maharashtra and one each in Jammu and Kashmir, Sikkim, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.
As the polling began, a suspected landmine blast was reported from Purulia in West Bengal. Two security jawans were injured. Purulia is one of the 14 constituencies polling in West Bengal and is a part of the trouble-torn Maoist belt.
And in the troubled Lalgarh region of the Jhargram constituency, despite a fleet of 36 buses deployed by the EC to bring voters to the polling stations, villagers mostly stayed away. The Maoists have called for a vote boycott and voters are scared.
The completion of the third phase of polling would mean that the polling would be over in 372 of the 543 seats. Polling for the remaining 171 seats would take place in two phases on May 7 for 85 seats and May 13 for 86 seats.
In Bihar, it's a prestige battle with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar (Janata Dal-United) pitted against the combined might of Lalu Prasad Yadav (Rashtriya Janata Dal) and Ram Vilas Paswan (Lok Janashakti Party).
From the Madhepura constituency, considered a stronghold of Lalu Prasad, JD-U's national president Sharad Yadav is fighting against RJD's Ravindra Charan Yadav while the Congress, is fighting it alone here.
Meanwhile, in Jammu and Kashmir, Anantnag is voting in this phase of Lok Sabha elections. Mehboob Beg of JKN is contesting from the Anantnag seat against Peer M Hussain of the PDP.
Mumbai also votes in the third phase of polling amidst speculations that a four-day weekend might hamper the voting percentage in the city. Those in fray from Mumbai are Congress leader Priya Dutt, contesting against BJP's Mahesh Jethmalani; Sanjay Nirupam (Congress) against Ram Naik (BJP); and Congress leader Milind Deora.
Apart from these, others whose fate would be locked in the ballot in this phase are:
Jaswant Singh (BJP) from Darjeeling
Deepa Das Munshi (Congress) from Raiganj
Mausam Noor (Congress) from Malda Uttar
Gurudas Dasgupta (CPI) from Ghatal
Basudeb Acharia (CPM) from Bankura