Third phase polling begins in 11 states, 3 UTs amid tight security


New Delhi, Apr 10 (Agencies) : This is the third round in the nine-phased elections which began on April 7 and will conclude on May 12.

Lok Sabha Speaker Meria Kumar, seven Union Ministers including Kapil Sibal, Kamal Nath, Shashi Tharoor (all of Congress), Ajit Singh of RLD and former army chief VK Singh and Harsh Vardhan (both BJP) are the key nominees among the 1419 candidates in the fray.

Ten of the 80 constituencies in politically key Uttar Pradesh will also elect their representatives. The ten seats are riot-hit Muzaffarnagar, Saharanpur, Kairana, Aligarh, Bijnor, Meerut, Baghpat, Ghaziabad, Gautambudh Nagar and Bulandshahar.

Prominent among those contesting in this phase are Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Ajit Singh pitted against former Mumbai police commissioner Satyapal Singh (BJP) in Baghpat, recent RLD entrant actress-politician Jaya Prada (Bijnor), film stars Nagma (Meerut) and Raj Babbar (Ghaziabad-both Cong), AAP's Shazia Ilmi and former Army chief and BJP's VK Singh in Ghaziabad, and riot accused Kadir Rana (BSP) in Muzaffarnagar.

In Delhi, which has seven Lok Sabha seats, an estimated 1.27 crore voters, which include over 3.37 lakh first-timers, will decide the fate of a total of 150 candidates including Congress' minister Kapil Sibal, former minister Ajay Maken, Delhi BJP president Harsh Vardhan, former DPCC chief JP Agarwal and Sandeep Dikshit, son of former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and BJP's Meenakshi Lekhi and Bhojpuri singer Manoj Tiwari.

The voting began at 7 AM at over 11,500 polling stations out of which 327 have been declared critical and 90 hyper critical.

The Congress had won all seven seats in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls.

Nearly 50,000 security personnel, apart from 161 flying squads of police and video surveillance teams have been deployed as part of arrangements to ensure fair and peaceful polls.

In a bid to boost voter turnout, a number of 'model' polling stations with spruced-up infrastructure have been set up for the first time.

In 2009 Lok Sabha polls, the overall voting percentage stood at 52.3 per cent, which increased to 66 per cent in the 2013 Delhi Assembly election.

  

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Title: Third phase polling begins in 11 states, 3 UTs amid tight security



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