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As voters are waiting to cast their ballots in the third phase of the Lok Sabha elections on Tuesday, several prominent leaders including Amit Shah who s contesting from Gandhinagar and Dimple Yadav from Mainpuri and the battle for 'Pawar' legacy in high-stake contests.
The voting in the third phase will take place on May 7, followed by the two phases on April 19 and April 26. Amit Shah The Union Home Minister will be seeking his second term from the seat of Gandhinagar. The seat is considered one of the prestigious bastions for the party, which has been represented by veterans like LK Advani. The party is undefeated on the seat since 1989. Shah is up against Congress' Sonal Patel this time. In 2019, Shah registered a massive victory here after defeating CJ Chavda with a victory margin of 5.55 lakh votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Chavda had contested the 2019 polls on a Congress ticket but later joined the BJP. Dimple Yadav Samajwadi Party MP Dimple Yadav will be seeking re-election from Mainpuri, a seat represented by her father-in-law and party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav and was vacated after his death on October 10. Dimple Yadav of the Samajwadi Party won the Mainpuri parliamentary by-election in December 2022, defeating Raghuraj Singh Shakya of the BJP by a margin of 2,88,461 votes. Sunetra Pawar and Supriya Sule Baramati, known as the bastion of the 'Pawar family', is witnessing a direct contest between three-time sitting MP Supriya Sule, the daughter of NCP (SP) supremo Sharad Pawar and Sunetra Pawar, the wife of Ajit Pawar, who has switched over to the BJP-led NDA and became Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister. This election comes after the split in the NCP, after which the Election Commission recognized Ajit Pawar's faction as the real NCP and supremo Sharad Pawar's faction was given the name of NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar). The battle for 'Pawar' legacy took an interesting turn when Ajit Pawar decided to field his wife Sunetra against his sister Supriya Sule Sharad Pawar first won from Baramati in 1984. In 1991, Ajit Pawar, his nephew won back the constituency. Since 1996, Baramati has been represented first by Sharad Pawar and then by Supriya Sule. Sule defeated BJP candidate, Kanchan Rahul Kul in 2019 with a margin of over 1.5 lakh votes. Shivraj Singh Chouhan Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the longest serving Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh is contesting from Vidisha, after the party gave the state's baton to a new face after winning the assembly elections last year. Chouhan is a five-time MP from Vidisha and is pitted against Congress' Pratap Bhanu Sharma. Jyotiraditya Scindia Jyotiraditya Scindia, former Congress leader who switched boat into BJP, leading to a political upheaval in Madhya Pradesh in 2020, is contesting from Guna constituency in Gwalior-Chambal region. Notably, Scindia had lost from this seat in 2019, while contesting on Congress ticket against BJP's Krishna Pal Singh. This time, Scindia is up against Congress' Yadvendra Rao Deshraj Singh. Digvijay Singh Former Mahdya Pradesh Chief Minister and veteran Congress leader Digvijay Singh has made a return to the electoral race from Rajgarh constituency, which is being touted as a hot seat. Singh, who has termed this as his "last election" is pitted against two-time BJP MP Rodmal Nagar, from the constituency which used to be his pocket borough for 33 years. BY Raghvendra BY Raghvendra, son of former Karnataka Chief Minister and three-time MP is seeking re-election from Shivamogga constituency. He is contesting against Congress candidate Geetha Shivarajkumar. Making the contest interesting, rebel Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Eshwarappa is also contesting from the seat defying the party command. Pralhad Joshi Union Minister Pralhad Joshi is seeking re-election from Dharwad constituency in Karnataka. Joshi, who has been winning the seat since 2004. He is up against Vinod Asooti of Congress. Joshi had served as Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Coal, and Mines in BJP's second tenure. The Lok Sabha elections are being held across seven phases from April 19 to June 1. The counting is scheduled on June 4. Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP is seeking a third term to power, while the Opposition INDIA bloc is aiming to wrest power by stopping the juggernaut. (ANI)
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