In Phase 3, Many BJP Strongholds Up For Poll: 10 Points

Today’s election brings to an end polling on more than half of the 543 parliamentary seats and could mean that the country has already delivered a verdict. The BJP has won the Surat seat unopposed as the Election Commission rejected the nomination of the Congress candidate and the other contenders stepped down.The Phase 3 election is on areas that are BJP strongholds. In 2019, the party won 72 of the 93 seats going to polls today, 26 of them in Gujarat alone.The other state where the BJP had done extremely well, Karnataka, could be a dark horse given the massive sex scandal that has hit BJP ally Janata Dal Secular. The BJP has tried to distance itself from the scandal, but it is anybody’s guess which way the women voters would lean.Maharashtra, where 11 of 48 seats are going to polls, has proved harder to read given the seismic political shifts the state has seen over the last few years. The key battles will be Pawar versus Pawar — with the factions led by uncle Sharad Pawar and nephew Ajit Pawar trying to establish dominance.The states going to polls in phase 3 include Assam (4 seats), Bihar (5), Chhattisgarh (7), Goa (2), Gujarat (26), Karnataka (14), Madhya Pradesh (8), Maharashtra (11), Uttar Pradesh (10), West Bengal (4), Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu (2).Polling will also take place in Betul, Madhya Pradesh, where the election due on Phase 2 was postponed following the death of a candidate from Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party.Election in Jammu and Kashmir’s Anantnag-Rajouri constituency was postponed after the BJP flagged concern about the weather, which was forcing shut a tunnel connecting the two ends of the constituency. It was proving a huge hurdle in campaigning, said the BJP, which is not contesting from the seat.  Key candidates for this phase includes Union ministers Amit Shah from Gujarat’s Gandhinagar, Jyotiraditya Scindia from Guna, Madhya Pradesh, Pralhad Joshi from Karnataka’s Dharwad and former Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan from Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh.The key Opposition members in fray include Samajwadi Party’s Dimple Yadav from Mainpuri in Uttar Pradesh; Congress’s Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury from  Berhampore, West Bengal, and Digvijaya Singh from Rajgarh, Madhya Pradesh; NCP’s Supriya Sule from Maharashtra’s Baramati. Perfume baron Badruddin Ajmal of AIDUF is contesting from Assam’s Dhubri.The next phase of election is due on May 13. The counting of votes will be held on June 4 after the last phase of the election ends on June 1.