Stage is set for Third phase poll; Shah, Rahul in the fray

Stage is to conduct polls for the third and largest phase of Lok Sabha election in 116 seats, including all constituencies in Gujarat and Kerala .on Tuesday.  Prominent among those whose fate will be decided are the two biggest parties presidents, Amit Shah of the ruling BJP and its principal opponent Rahul Gandhi of Congress

More than anyone, the stakes are high for the ruling BJP and its allies as they bagged 66 seats out of these 116 spread across 14 states and Union territories in 2014 general elections.  Contrary to this, the Congress and its allies just managed to win 27, and the rest went to other opposition parties and independents.

Apart from all seats in Gujarat (26) and Kerala (20), voting scheduled to be held in four seats in Assam, five in Bihar, seven in Chattisgarh, 14 each in Karnataka and Maharashtra, six in Odisha, 10 in Uttar Pradesh, five in West Bengal, two in Goa, and one each in Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu and Tripura.

One of the Tripura East constituency, where the poll was original scheduled for April 18, but could not be conducted will be held in this phase, as also in part of the Anantnag Lok Sabha seat in Jammu and Kashmir, where election being held in three phases..

The Election Commission has set up 2.10 lakh polling booths where about 18.56 crore voters set to vote in this phase.  Elaborate security arrangements were also put in place to avoid any untoward incidents.

In the first two phases, election was held to 91 and 96 seats on April 11 and April 18 respectively. Elections are being held in seven phases and with the completion of third phase, the election process will be completed in southern states.

Interestingly, the BJP president Amit Shah, who replaced L K Advani as the party nominee from Gandhinagar, and 370 other candidates are in the fray in the 26 Lok Sabha seats all of which were won by the party in the last election. Union Minister of State for Tribal Affairs Jaswantsinh Bhabhor is the BJP nominee from Dahod seat.

Congress party president Rahul Gandhi, who also entered electoral fray from Kerala’s Wayanad, apart from his traditional Amethi in UP, has added interest to the fight between rivals UDF and LDF for 20 seats.  The BJP, which is trying to make inroads in down south state, has also aggressively campaigned in a bid to capitalize on the Sabarimala shrine women entry issue.

Union minister Alphons Kannamthanam is seeking to make his Lok Sabha debut from Ernakulam. Sitting Congress MP Shashi Tharoor is facing a triangular contest in Thiruvananthapuram, where the BJP has fielded former Governor Kummanam Rajasekharan and the CPI C Divakaran.

For both the ruling CPI (M)-led LDF and the Opposition Congress-headed UDF, it’s a do-or-die battle for 20 Lok Sabha seats in Kerala. The BJP-led NDA is posing a formidable challenge to the two traditional fronts in at least three constituencies — Thiruvananthapuram, Pathanamthitta and Thrissur.

The battle lines are clearly delineated in Karnakata for a bipolar contest between the ruling Congress-JD(S) combine and the BJP.