Third phase of LS polls a litmus test for several top leaders

New Delhi: The third phase of 2024 Lok Sabha elections taking places on Tuesday will see 1351 candidates trying their luck in 93 seats across 12 states and union territories

The biggies in the fray include Home Minister Amit Shah, Health and Family Welfare Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

Voting will take place in many high-profile seats like Gandhinagar and Rajkot in Gujarat; Guna, Vidisha and Rajgarh in Madhya Pradesh; Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg and Baramati in Maharashtra besides Agra in Uttar Pradesh.

Elections will be held on 26 Lok Sabha seats of Gujarat, including Gandhinagar from here Union Home Minister Amit Shah is in the electoral fray for the second time, contesting against Congress’ Sonal Ramanbhai Patel and BSP’s Mohammedanish Desai.

Having twice been a Rajya Sabha MP, Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya will be contesting Lok Sabha elections for the first time, taking on Congress’ Lalit Vasoya and BSP’s N.P. Rathod from Porbandar.

Union Minister and senior BJP leader Parshottam Rupala is contesting from Rajkot against Congress’ Paresh Dhanani and BSP’s Chamanbhai Nagjibhai Savsani.

Voting for the Guna Lok Sabha seat of Madhya Pradesh will also be held on May 7 with Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia contesting on a BJP ticket for the first time against Congress’ Yadavendra Rao Deshraj and BSP’s Dhaniram Chaudhary.

Former Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chauhan is trying his luck from the Vidisha seat, taking on Pratap Bhanu Sharma of Congress and Kishan Lal of BSP.

Senior Congress leader and former Chief Minister Digvijay Singh is contesting from the Rajgarh seat of Madhya Pradesh. BJP has fielded Rodmal Nagar and BSP has fielded Rajendra Suryavanshi as its candidate for the seat.

Elections will also be held on 10 Lok Sabha seats of Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday. Union Minister S.P. Singh Baghel is in the electoral fray from Agra. In this seat, the Samajwadi Party has given the ticket to Surendra Chandra while Pooja Amrohi will be the BSP candidate.

An interesting contest will also be seen in Maharashtra’s Baramati where Ajit Pawar’s wife Sunetra Pawar from the Nationalist Congress Party will take on her sister-in-law and Sharad Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule of Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar).

The BJP has made Union Minister Narayan Rane its candidate for Ratnagiri Sindhudurg Lok Sabha seat. He is contesting against Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate Vinayak Raut.

IANS with edits