The BJP has already won Surat in Gujarat and Indore in Madhya Pradesh uncontested.
In Phase 3, May 7th, voting will take place on 93 seats in Assam (4), Bihar (5), Chhattisgarh (7), Goa (2), Gujarat (26), Karnataka (14), Madhya Pradesh (8), Maharashtra (11), Uttar Pradesh (10), West Bengal (4), Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu (2).
Big names are in the fray in Phase 3, May 7th voting include Home Minister Amit Shah, former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) leader Supriya Sule, and Samajwadi Party leader Dimple Yadav.
A total of 1,331 candidates are in the fray in this phase. The BJP has fielded a maximum of 81 candidates, followed by the Congress with 67.
The 10 parliamentary seats going to the polls in UP in the third phase on May 7 are - Agra, Aonla, Badaun, Bareilly, Etah, Fatehpur Sikri, Hathras and Sambhal besides Firozabad and Mainpuri.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged voters to turn out in large numbers and exercise their franchise.
Speaking to the media after casting his vote at a polling booth in Gujarat’s Ahmedabad, Modi said, “Today is the third phase of voting. There is great importance of 'Daan' in our country and in the same spirit, the countrymen should vote as much as possible. Four rounds of voting are still ahead.”
The Prime Minister was accompanied by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who is the BJP’s candidate in the Gandhinagar constituency. Shah is seeking a second straight term as MP from the Gandhinagar seat.
In West Bengal, polls are being held in Malda North, Malda South, Jangipur and Murshidabad.
Over 17 crore voters will exercise their franchise across 93 constituencies, of which 72 are general seats, 10 are reserved for Scheduled Castes and 11 for Scheduled Tribes.
Firozabad in Uttar Pradesh has often been a shaky ground for Mulayam's party. In 2009, Akhilesh Yadav had won the seat but after he vacated it, actor-turned-politicianRaj Babbar won it on Congress ticket. SP got it back in 2014 but in 2019, it was lost to BJP's 2019 Chandrasen Jadon.
In 2019, Akhilesh's uncle, Shivpal Singh Yadav formed a new partyPSP(L) and polled 91,869 votes. BJP nominee could humble Akshay Yadav, son of Ram Gopal Yadav, by a margin of 28, 781.
The lawmaker wife of Samajwadi Party chief is not a Yadav by birth; but that's not the issue and hence Dimple Yadav has been fielded from Mainpuri again. This is one seat -- the BJP may not struggle to wrest amid a hyped Ram Mandir campaign.
Perhaps they know, it is much more than a tough seat.
Besides Mulayam and Ms Dimple Yadav, three others from Yadav clan have represented this.-- 1998 and 1999 Balram Singh Yadav, 2004 (by-poll) Dharmendra Yadav and 2014 by-poll Tej Pratap Singh Yadav.
In 2024, SP nominee Dimple Yadav is pitted against BJP's Jaiveer Singh and Shiv Prasad Yadav of BSP.
The issue here could be development, lack of development and a case of typical 'alleged negligence'; but voters know that they have to back Netaji's Bahu - that is Dimple Yadav. But under Yogi Adityanath's leadership in the assembly polls, BJP could pick up two assembly segments falling under the Mainpuri parliamentary segment.
They are Mainpuri (Jaiveer Singh) and Bhongaon (Ram Naresh Agnihotri).
Importantly among the five segments former CM and Samajwadi chief Akhilesh Yadav represents Karhal assembly and his uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav represents Jaswantnagar assembly.So, in other words, the family prestige will be at stake.
The Agra-Firozabad and Mainpuri section or sub-region was once knownas the Yadav heartland. But since 2014 - as BJP's penetration deepened,there are changes on the ground.
Blog link - UP 10 seats
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Congress leader Digvijaya Singh from Rajgarh, Geetha Shivarajkumar from Shivamogga, and Priyanka Jarikholi from Chikkodi are also in the fray.
The all-powerful voters will also decide the fate of Jyotiraditya Scindia from Guna, Shivraj Singh Chouhan from Vidisha, Purushottam Rupala from Rajkot, Jagadish Shettar from Belgaum, Basavaraj Bommai from Haveri BY Raghavendra from Shivamogga.
Hindu-Muslim divide is more than political opium in world's largest democracy
The BJP has alleged Congress of being keen to give disproportionate benefits to India’s minority Muslim community, at the cost of certain disadvantaged tribal and Hindu caste groups.
Between Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi; there are many dissimilarities.
But there can be one common factor. Both these leaders over zealously turned the ongoing election into an affair of religion and religious divides.
As predicted Narendra Modi is banking heavily on his strong Hindutva (Hindu-first) card. Well that has been his image even in earlier elections right from 2002 when anti-Muslim mayhem had endeared him to Indian voters.
But Rahul Gandhi on his part has knowingly or otherwise dragged his party's and that way entire opposition's line of campaign as -- 'pro-Muslim'. "More than election, we are into religious wars. We are behaving funny and immature. Prime Minister Modi likes to call India the 'mother of democracy', but he misses the point that sheer communalism is actually a strict anti-thesis to religion," says analyst Ramakanto Shanyal in West Bengal.
One fruit seller in Agra says, "We lost the Babri Masjid....but we have to protect the Shahi Idgah at Mathuraand also other Masjids".
However, Hindu voters even belonging to a small caste such as Nai say the BJP is widely expected to win a third term in office.
"Under Modi, the Hindu has gained confidence. Today the common Hindus are creating the genesis of a new history. This election is also linked to civilisationalstruggles," says Bheem Manohar.
His argument was that in the face of a resurgent BJP onslaught, Samajwadi and BSP were too weak and too small to stem the rise of Hindutva politics. "It is the Congress alone which could fight,"but he also hastened to add that the Congress never tried to give a fight to the Modi-Yogi duo in Uttar Pradesh.
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