Polling for third phase LS election on Thursday

Voters will cast their ballots tomorrow in the third phase of Lok Sabha elections to choose 107 Members of Parliament from among 1,567 candidates, including political titans Sonia Gandhi and L K Advani.      

Over 14.4 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in polling in this phase to be held in 1.65 lakh booths across nine states and two union territories. Election would also be held tomorrow to the 32-member Sikkim legislative assembly.      

Congress president Sonia Gandhi is seeking her first re-election from the Lok Sabha constituency of Rae Bareli. She had moved to this seat from Amethi in 2004 when her son Rahul Gandhi entered the election arena. Rae Bareli was represented by Sonia's mother-in-law late Indira Gandhi in 1980.      

Advani, who has been named the BJP's prime ministerial candidate, has represented Gandhinagar seat since 1991. It's the winning margin that is more important for poll managers of both these candidates.      

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

Polling for 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat will be completed at one go. Besides Gujarat, 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.     

The results will be out on May 16. The five-round general elections began on April 16 and so far polling has been completed to 265 Lok Sabha seats.