Biggies in fray, over 144 mn voters to vote in third phase

A total of 107 Lok Sabha constituencies will go to the polls tomorrow sitting in judgment over more than 1,500 candidates in the running that include Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) prime ministerial candidate, LK Advani, and Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

Over 144 million voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in polling in the third phase of the current general elections to be held in 165,000 booths across nine states and two Union Territories. Elections would also be held tomorrow to the 32-member Sikkim legislative assembly.

Sonia Gandhi is seeking her second re-election from the Lok Sabha constituency of Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh during this parliamentary term. In her second election, she won the seat by a bigger margin of 400,000 votes over the 2004 level of 250,000 votes. Her daughter Priyanka, while campaigning this time, has predicted an even bigger margin.

Rae Bareli was represented by Sonia’s mother-in-law, late Indira Gandhi, in 1980.

Advani has been representing the Gandhinagar seat since 1991. It is the winning margin that is more important for poll managers of both these candidates.

The other prominent candidates in the fray in the third phase include former prime minister HD Deve Gowda, JD-U chief Sharad Yadav, former Karnataka chief minister S Bangarappa and Union ministers Sriprakash Jaiswal and Jyotiraditya Scindia.

Polling for the 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat will be completed at one go. This apart, polling will be held in 16 seats in Madhya Pradesh, 15 in Uttar Pradesh, 14 in West Bengal, 11 each in Bihar and Karnataka, 10 in Maharashtra and one each in Jammu and Kashmir, Sikkim, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.

Sikkim has 32 Assembly seats, of which one is reserved for the Sangha monks, who number 3,058.