PM Modi, Amit Shah to cast vote today in Lok Sabha phase 3 polls

Ahmedabad (Gujarat) [India], May 7 (ANI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who is the BJP candidate for Gujarat's Gandhinagar, will both cast their vote in the third phase of the Lok Sabha elections on Tuesday (May 7).
The third phase will have big leaders from the ruling party and prominent names from the opposition INDIA bloc.
A day before the polling, in a post on X, the prime minister said he will be voting in Ahmedabad, which is under the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha constituency. He urged others to come out and cast their vote in "record numbers".
"After today's exceptional programmes in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, reached Gujarat. In the morning tomorrow, 7th May, I will be voting in Ahmedabad. I urge all those who are to vote tomorrow to do so in record numbers as well," PM Modi tweeted.
Meanwhile, security has been tightened in Nishan Higher Secondary School in anticipation of the PM's vote.
"All the arrangements have been made and the forces are deployed." Neeraj Kumar Badgujar, JCP Ahmedabad told ANI.
The polling started for 93 Lok Sabha seats across 12 states and union territories in the third phase of the general election on Tuesday at 7:00 am.
The states and union territories where the elections are being held in this phase are 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). The BJP has bagged the Surat seat unopposed.
In this phase, more than 1300 candidates, including around 120 women, are in the fray.
A total of 17.24 crore voters are eligible to cast their franchise in this phase at 1.85 lakh polling stations. Seventy-five delegates from 23 countries will see the poll process, the poll panel said.
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 to be held on May 25. Originally, voting was scheduled to be held on 94 Lok Sabha seats in the third phase.
However, elections were rescheduled from the second to the third phase in the Betul Lok Sabha seat of Madhya Pradesh due to the death of the BSP candidate. The BJP candidate in Surat has been declared the winner unopposed and due to the revised polling schedule in the Anantnag-Rajouri seat, the total seats now going to poll are 93.
Prominent leaders to contest in today's poll battle 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 2019 general election the BJP won 72 of the 93 seats that go to the polls today.
Polling for more than half of the total number of constituencies will be completed by the end of this phase.
The Lok Sabha elections are being held across seven phases, from April 19 to June 1. The counting is scheduled for June 4.
The Narendra Modi-led BJP is seeking a third term in power, while the opposition INDIA bloc is aiming to wrest power by stopping the juggernaut. (ANI)