Elections 2019: Third Phase Voting on Tuesday for 117 Seats Across 15 States

New Delhi: People in 15 states will vote on Tuesday in the third phase of Lok Sabha elections scheduled for Tuesday which will see a maximum of 117 seats going to the polls in a single phase of seven-phased election.

Voting will be completed in all seats of Gujarat, Kerala, Goa, Karanataka, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Karnataka, Kerala, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu with the third phase polls.

The presidents of the two main political parties are in fray in the third phase with Bharatiya Janata Party chief Amit Shah making his Lok Sabha election debut from Gandhinagar and Congress President Rahul Gandhi contesting from Wayanad.

The BJP will aim to defend the 62 of the 117 third phase seats it won in 2014 and its performance in this phase will be crucial in deciding its political fortunes.

The Congress had won 16 seats, while the remaining seats were divided between Biju Janata Dal (6), Communist Party of India- Marxist (7), Nationalist Congress Party (4), Samajwadi Party (3), Shiv Sena (2), Rashtriya Janata Dal (2), All India United Democratic Front (2), Indian Union Muslim League (2), Lok Janshakti Party (1), People’s Democratic Party (1), Revolutionary Socialist Party (1), Kerala Congress-Mani (1), Communist Party of India (1), Swabhimani Paksha (1) and Trinamool Congress (1). Three seats were won by Independent candidates.

This time, BJP will be tested in its bastion Gujarat -- where polling will be held for all the 26 Lok Sabha seats -- apart from Karanataka, Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh, where the party had done well in 2014.

In 2014, BJP won all the 26 seats in Gujarat, 11 of 14 in Karnataka, eight of 10 in Uttar Pradesh, six of seven in Chhattisgarh, six of 14 in Maharashtra, both the seats in Goa and one seat each in Assam, Bihar, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.

Gujarat

Gujarat being the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP would again look for a clean sweep in the state. However, the Congress, which gave a tough fight to BJP in the Assembly polls held in 2017, is hoping to win 10 to 15 seats this time.

The three young Gujarat leaders -- Hardik Patel, Alpesh Thakor and Jignesh Mewani -- whose positions had helped the Congress build a narrative against the BJP during the Assembly elections, are not in the fray for the Lok Sabha polls.

Patidar agitation leader Patel, who joined the Congress last month, cannot contest due to his conviction in a rioting case, while Thakor quit the Congress earlier this month.

Karnataka

In Karnataka, BJP is considered to have strong footing in many of the 14 seats going to the polls on Tuesday. However, the saffron party faces tough challenge from the Congress-Janata Dal-Secular combine.

Moreover, its vote share, too, dipped in the Assembly polls held in Karnataka last year as compared to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. In the Assembly elections, the BJP had polled lower votes than the Congress but got more seats.

Uttar Pradesh

The BJP faces a strong challenge in Uttar Pradesh, as the third phase of Lok Sabha elections will be fought in the "Yadav belt".

The Samajwadi Party (SP) strongholds of Mainpuri, Badaun and Sambhal will go to the polls on Tuesday and the party's prospects have received a considerabe boost following its alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). The Congress, too, is also likely to cut into BJP votes.

Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) President Shivpal Singh Yadav, who is contesting from Firozabad against his nephew and SP candidate, Akshay Yadav, has been cautioning the people against the SP-BSP combine.

SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav is contesting from Mainpuri. The joint rally held in the constituency on Friday, in which BSP supremo Mayawati, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav shared the stage, is likely to boost the prospects of the SP candidates.

Maharashtra

In Maharashtra, the third phase of polling will be held in some NCP strongholds, including Baramati, Madha, Kolahpur and Satara. NCP President Sharad Pawar's daughter Supriya Sule is contesting from the party's bastion in Baramati.

The Congress and NCP have dominated the local bodies and cooperatives in the sugar belt of the state, which has, of late, been challenged by the BJP-Shiv Sena combine. The Lok Sabha results will show if the NCP is able to regain its earlier dominance in the region.

Chhattisgarh

In Chhattisgarh, the BJP has sought to beat the anti-incumbency wave against its sitting MPs by replacing all of them. Here the saffron party faces a renewed challenge from the Congress, which returned to power in the state in 2018 after 15 years. The Congress is focusing more on local issues, telling the voters that its government has quickly delivered on its promises.

Bihar

Of the five seats in Bihar, BJP had won only one in 2014 and it is again contesting one seat this time. Janata Dal (United), the BJP's ally in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), is contesting three seats while LJP is contesting one seat.

As part of the grand alliance, the RJD) is contesting three seats, while the Congress and the Vikasheel Insaan Party are contesting one seat each.

The key contest is in Madhepura, where sitting MP Pappu Yadav, who had won on a RJD ticket in 2014, is contesting for the Jan Adhikar Party, a political outfit floated by him in 2015. He is up against RJD candidate Sharad Yadav.

Odisha

In Odisha, the third phase of elections will witness a battle between several political heavyweights as well as former bureaucrats.

Puri will witness a triangular fight between spokespersons of three major political parties, as two-time sitting MP and BJD spokesman Pinaki Mishra will cross swords with BJP's national spokesperson Sambit Patra and state Congress media cell Chairman Satya Prakash Nayak. Dhenkanal is also expected to witness a triangular fight.

Assam

In the four constituencies of lower Assam that will go to the polls on Tuesday, both the Congress and the AIUDF are seeking to gain votes by targeting BJP over its stance in support of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill.

AIUDF has accused the Congress of not adhering to "gentleman's agreement" between the two parties under which the regional party did not put up candidates on 11 seats and was expecting the Congress to field "weak candidates". Congress, however, has said that it had no such arrangement.

Kerala

Congress will look to swell its tally in Kerala with Rahul Gandhi in the fray from Wayanad. The party had won eight of the 20 seats in 2014 while a few more were won by its allies. BJP, too, is seeing a realistic chance to win four seats in the southern state.

West Bengal

In West Bengal where it faces a multi-cornered challenge from the Trinamool Congress, the BJP and the CPI-M, the Congress will seek to at least retain the three seats it won in 2014.