Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the BJP candidate for Gujarat’s Gandhinagar casted their viotes in the third phase of the Lok Sabha elections on Tuesday (May 7). This phase will witness the participation of key figures from the ruling party as well as prominent names from the opposition INDIA bloc. Prime Minister Narendra Modi signed a portrait of him as he arrives at a polling booth in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
#WATCH | Union Home Minister Amit Shah arrives at Nishan Higher Secondary School in Ahmedabad, Gujarat
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also arrive here to cast his vote for #LokSabhaElections2024 pic.twitter.com/spoLB86e3c
— ANI (@ANI) May 7, 2024
#WATCH | Prime Minister Narendra Modi greets people as he arrives at a polling booth in Ahmedabad, Gujarat to cast his vote for #LokSabhaElections2024
Union Home Minister Amit Shah is also present. pic.twitter.com/gptAewp7xi
— ANI (@ANI) May 7, 2024
In a social media post, the Prime Minister announced his intention to cast his vote in Ahmedabad, which falls under the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha constituency. He encouraged others to join him in voting “in record numbers.”
Security measures have been heightened at the Nishan Higher Secondary School in anticipation of the Prime Minister’s visit. Neeraj Kumar Badgujar, JCP Ahmedabad, assured, “All the arrangements have been made and the forces are deployed.”
Polling commenced for 93 Lok Sabha seats across 12 states and union territories at 7:00 am on Tuesday. These include Assam (4), Bihar (5), Chhattisgarh (7), Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu (2), Goa (2), Gujarat (25), Karnataka (14), Maharashtra (11), Madhya Pradesh (8), Uttar Pradesh (10), and West Bengal (4). Notably, the BJP has secured the Surat seat unopposed.
Over 1300 candidates, including approximately 120 women, are contesting in this phase. A total of 17.24 crore voters are eligible to cast their ballots across 1.85 lakh polling stations. Additionally, 75 delegates from 23 countries will observe the electoral process.
However, voting will not take place for Jammu and Kashmir’s Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha seat on Tuesday, as the Election Commission of India (ECI) has postponed the polling to the sixth phase on May 25. Initially, voting was slated for 94 Lok Sabha seats in the third phase.
Adjustments have been made to the electoral schedule due to unforeseen circumstances. For instance, elections for the Betul Lok Sabha seat in Madhya Pradesh were rescheduled from the second to the third phase following the death of the BSP candidate. With the BJP candidate in Surat declared the winner uncontested and the revised polling schedule for the Anantnag-Rajouri seat, the total seats going to poll are now 93.
Prominent leaders competing in this phase include Union Home Minister Amit Shah, former Madhya Pradesh chief ministers Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Digvijaya Singh, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, Samajwadi Party leader Dimple Yadav, and NCP (SP) leader Supriya Sule, among others.
In the 2019 general election, the BJP secured victory in 72 out of the 93 seats contested in this phase. By the end of this phase, polling for more than half of the total constituencies will be completed.
The Lok Sabha elections, spanning seven phases from April 19 to June 1, will culminate in the counting of votes on June 4. The Narendra Modi-led BJP is seeking a third term in power, while the opposition INDIA bloc aims to challenge their dominance.