“BJP will secure over 400 seats,” says party’s Kalaburagi candidate Dr Umesh Jadhav after casting his vote

Kalaburagi (Karnataka) [India], May 7 (ANI): BJP candidate Dr Umesh Jadhav showed an indelible ink mark on his finger after casting his vote at a polling booth in Kalaburagi on Tuesday and expressed confidence in the party of securing more than 400 seats in the country.

Speaking with ANI, Dr Umesh Jadhav also said that the BJP will win the remaining 14 seats in the state as well. He said, “ Tuesday is a lucky day for me and I went to the polling booth at 7:00 am to cast my vote. Today is the day of Bajrang Bali… I have full faith that BJP will win from the seat of Kalabiuragi with the majority of votes… The voting for 14 seats is already done and the remaining 14 seats will also be won by the Bhartiya Janta Party. And in the country, it will be 100 per cent ‘400 Paar.’”

Meanwhile, Congress has fielded party chief Mallikarjun Kharge's son-in-law Radhakrishna Doddamani against Jadhav from Kalaburagi.

The Kalaburagi constituency comprises eight assembly segments—Afzalpur, Jewargi, Chittapur, Kalaburagi North, Kalaburagi South, Kalaburagi Rural, Sedam in Kalaburagi district and Gurmitkal in Yadgir district. 

The constituency has a total of 20,65,018 registered voters, with 10,34,005 men, 10,30,677 women and 336 belonging to the third gender.

The sitting MP from Kalaburagi, Jadhav posted a resounding win over present Congress national president, Mallikarjun Kharge, in the 2019 elections, bagging 52.14 per cent of the total votes polled. The veteran Congress leader could only mine 44.12 per cent votes.

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.

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 the 2019 general election, the BJP won 72 of the 93 seats that go to the polls today.

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)