Campaign for third phase LS poll ends: Yadav vs Yadav; Will Rahul represent Wayanad, BJP retain Gujarat?

Voting will be held on April 23, Wednesday, from 0700 hrs to 1800 hrs with the mandate to be known on 23rd May.

Earlier, according to schedule, 115 seats were going to polls. However, the Election Commission of India, included Tripura East parliamentary constituency in third phase, after the polling there was deferred, due to security reasons.

National security

Accusing Narendra Modi government of politicising the defence forces, Indian National Congress said on Sunday that its governments had always made national security a paramount issue and displayed zero tolerance for militancy.

Briefing mediapersons here at the AICC headquarters, senior party leaders P Chidambaram, Jairam Ramesh and Lt-Gen (retd) DS Hooda said Congress governments had authorised the defence forces to deal with Pakistan and cross-border militancy without any political intervention.

It was unfortunate that the present government had politicised national security , added the senior Congress leaders.

Mr Chidambaram and Mr Hooda said that the overall security policy should be focused on proper intervention on global issues, a safe neighbour, peaceful solution to internal problems, public safety and expansion of its capabilities. "At the same time, it is also necessary that we strengthen our security mechanism and military system too," they added.

The Congress alleged that in the past five years there had been a worrisome decline in the nation's military capacity and security system, and this is when political rhetoric on national security had reached new heights.

Modi vs terror

Taking a dig at Congress, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday in Patan said that Congress had a soft stance against terrorism, whiler BJP had wiped out terrorists from India without worrying for the fate of his 'chair'.

Addressing an election rally in Patan of Gujarat, Mr Modi said that for the past 40 years the tears in the nation's eyes could not stop due to terrorism. 'We saw the tricolour wrapped bodies of our jawans every now and then.

Even police had to be deployed in temples. Before entering Somnath and other temples one had to pass through metal detectors.

'Who is responsible for this situation? What was the root cause? We will have to think ?', he questioned.

Militancy-hit Anantnag

The election to militancy-hit Anantnag Lok Sabha seat in Jammu and Kashmir will be conducted in three phases -- April 23, April 29 and 6th May. Peoples Democratic Party president and former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti is in fray from this constituency.

State Congress president G A Mir and Justice (retd) Hasnain Masoodi are among the 18 candidates who have filed nomination papers for the seat. Communist Party of India (Marxist), which has not fielded any candidate, is supporting National Conference nominee from Anantnag constituency.

The parliamentary seat, divided in 18 segments, is considered a stronghold of the PDP.

Election Commission has reduced the polling by two hours in the constituency. Due to security considerations, voting will now be held between 0700 hrs to 1600 hrs .

Returning Officer for Anantnag Parliamentary Constituency, Khalid Jahangir, told UNI that all arrangements, including three-tier security, have been put in place to conduct the elections in a secure and peaceful manner.

Campaigning witnessed some militant attacks, including hurling of grenades, firing on a vehicle carrying poll material, besides stone pelting. A PDP worker was shot at and critically wounded by unidentified gunmen last evening in Anantnag.

Feuding clan

In Uttar Pradesh, polls will be held on Moradabad, Rampur, Sambhal, Firozabad, Mainpuri, Etah, Badaun, Aonla, Bareilly and Pilibhit seats. Except for Badaun and Mainpuri, the rest are held by the Bharatiya Janata Party.

But there is something more to watch.

Samajwadi Party president will contest against his estranged uncle Shivapal Yadav from Firozabad parliamentary constituency. Shivpal has broken his ties with Samajwadi party after difference in opinion with Jr Yadav and floated Pragatsheel Samajwadi Party Lohia. The result might decide the end or continuance of Shivpal in active politics.

In Rampur, actress-turned-politician Jaya Prada of the BJP is pitted against her bitter rival and SP candidate Mohammad Azam Khan. Recently, ECI had banned Mr Khan from campaigning for 72 hours for reportedly making derogatory remark against Ms Prada.

In most of the constituencies, there is a direct fight between the BSP-SP alliance and the BJP, but presence of Congress in some seats has made the contest triangular.

The third phase polling in UP, will also decide the fate of Union Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar (Bareilly), Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav (Mainpuri) and BJP's Varun Gandhi (Pilibhit).

Modi's Gujarat

The poll campaign in Gujarat, the home state of the Premier, ended peacefully on Sunday. Election on all the 26 Lok Sabha seats of Gujarat and byelections on four assembly seats, will be held on April 23 in the third of the seven-phased LS polls.

The assembly bypolls necessitated due to resignation of four Congress MLAs.

During the campaign, BJP leaders mainly raised national security, alleged injustice with Gujarat by Congress, development while the main opposition party again made unemployment, 'failed' policies and promises of Modi government, demonetisation and poor implementation of GST its poll planks.

BJP president Amit Shah, who is standing from Gandhinagar, has undertaken rigorous canvassing.

The 26 LS constituencies in Gujarat are - Kutch (SC)-10, Banaskantha- 14, Gandhinagar- 17, Patan-12, Mahesana - 12, Sabarkantha- 20, Ahmedabad-East - 26,Ahmedabad-West (SC)- 13 , Rajkot-10, Porbandar-17, Jamnagar-28,Junagadh-12, Amreli-12, Bhavnagar-10,Anand- 10, Kheda -7, Dahod (ST) -7, Vadodara-13, Chhota Udepur(ST)-8, Bharuch-17, Bardoli(ST)-12, Surat 13, Navasari-25, Valsad(ST)-9.

All the 26 seats were won by BJP in the last election.

Red corridor

Campaigning in seven seats of Chhattisgarh--Raipur, Bilaspur, Durg, Janjgir, Korba, Raigarh and Sarguja constituencies ended peacefully.

Maximum 25 candidates are in the fray of Bilaspur and Raipur Lok Sabha constituencies each while minimum of ten candidates are in the fray from Sarguja.

Political parties pulled out all stops in third and last phase of Lok Sabha elections in the naxalite-affected state. Mr Modi and BJP president Amit Shah, party vice-president and former chief minister of the state Dr Raman Singh, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Union Minister Uma Bharti addressed gatherings to campaign in favour of BJP candidates.

Chhattisgarh has 11 Lok Sabha seats. Polling in two phases was held on April 11 and April 18, Thursday.

Rahul in South

The high voltage campaign for the 20 Lok Sabha seats in Kerala ended on Sunday.The voting will begin at 0700 hrs on April 23 and end at 1800 hrs.

As many as 831 booths are trouble torn and 359 are prone to violence. About 219 booths are listed under Maoist affected places, sources said.

Out of 219 Maoist affected booths, 72 were identified in Wayanad district, 39 in Kannur district, 67 in Malappuram district and 41 in Kozhikode.

Wayanad parliamentary seat have made headlines after Congress president Rahul Gandhi decided to contest from this constituency of Kerala along with his home-constituency Amethi.

Mamata vs rest

A high voltage electioneering by political parties for the third of the seven-phase election to five Lok Sabha seats spreading over three districts of North Bengal on April 23 ended this evening.

Polling will be held for Balurghat, Maldaha Uttar, Maldaha Dakshin, Jangipur and Murshidabad Lok Sabha constituencies.

BJP, All India Trinamool Congress (AITC), Congress and the Left Front have fielded their candidates in all the five constituencies.

There was high pitched campaigning for the five seats by Mr Modi, Mr Rahul Gandhi, West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee, BJP national president Amit Shah and top leaders of the Congress and Left parties.

The campaign was mainly polarised between Banerjee and Modi.

Issues ranging from corruption to communalism, NRC to chit fund scams and development to security featured in the speeches of the warring party leaders.

Anti-incumbency?

Campaigning for six Lok Sabha and 42 Assembly seats of Odisha ended on Sunday.

Road shows, election rallies, door to door campaign by the candidates dominated the electioneering in Sambalpur, Keonjhar, Dhenkanal,Cuttack, Puri and Bhubaneswar Lok Sabha seats and also the 42 Assembly seats falling under these Parliamentary constituencies.

For BJP, Mr Modi and party president Amit Shah conducted road shows and addressed series of election meetings and asked the voters for a change of government in the state for an all round development of Odisha.

They were joined by several central leaders including Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Union minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Union Drinking and sanitation Minister Uma Bharati and Union Minister of minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.

The BJP focused on one slogan-change the corrupt and scam ridden Naveen Patnaik government which ruled for 19 years and give one chance to the BJP for a new Odisha and elect a CM who can speak and understand Odia language

On the other hand, BJD supremo and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik single handedly conducted extensive road shows across the constituencies in specially designed hi tech bus and addressed several election meetings campaigning for the party candidates.

For the Congress it was almost a lacklustre show. No central leaders visited the state till date for electioneering leaving the battle field for the contesting candidates to campaign on their own strength to reach the voters.

The third phase elections in coastal, western and northen parts of Odisha will be a litmus test for the credibility and popularity of both Naveen Patnaik and Mr Modi.

In the 2014 elections, the ruling BJD had swept the polls bagging all the six Lok Sabha seats and 37 Assembly seats.

Tripura East

Security personnel deployed as per requirement towards Tripura East parliamentary constituency election.

Work of Flying Squad, SST, VST in South Tripura District and others district in Tripura is being gone on as per the guidance of security officers with an eye to providing all the security assistance for voters to exercise their franchises. There is a very tight security arrangement.

To conduct free and fair elections in East Tripura parliamentary constituency, ECI has appointed four police observers--Special Central Police Observer Mrinal Kanti Das, a former Director General of Manipur Police and three other police observers are Nilav Kishore, K Jayraman and Subrata Mukhopadhyay.

A special central police observer will oversee the deployment of security forces in polling in the east seat. A total of 1,645 polling stations in 1,349 locations are covered by a large number of Central forces, said a source.