New Delhi:

A total of 92 seats across 11 states and Union Territories will be going to polls in the third phase of Lok Sabha election today. Out of 1352 candidates, there are several heavyweights whose poll fortunes will make national headlines.

Earlier, 94 seats were to vote in this phase. But while results for the Surat seat have been declared because the BJP candidate has no opposition, polling for Anantnag has been deferred due to bad weather. 

Here are some of the high-profile candidates:

Amit Shah: Union Home Minister Amit Shah is contesting Lok Sabha polls from the Gandhinagar constituency in Gujarat. The Congress has fielded Sonal Patel from the BJP stronghold. The Gandhinagar seat, which was represented by BJP veteran Lal Krishna Advani six times, has been with the BJP for about 35 years now. In the 2019 election, Mr Shah had recorded a thumping victory over the Congress’s Chatursinh Javanji Chavda, defeating him by a margin of over 5 lakh votes.

Supriya Sule: Among the most watched candidates in this phase is NCP leader and Sharad Pawar’s daughter, Supriya Sule. A four-time MP who has been a member of both Houses of parliament, Ms Sule is contesting from her family stronghold Baramati that she has represented thrice. This battle, however, is different from her earlier fights. This time, Ms Sule is up against another Pawar – Ajit Pawar’s wife and her sister-in-law, Sunetra. The Pawar vs Pawar contest is taking part against the backdrop of the mutiny within NCP led by Sharad Pawar’s nephew Ajit Pawar. The Baramati battle, therefore, is not just about a seat, but a show of strength that will determine if the veteran politician, who is backing daughter Supriya, still holds sway over the NCP rank and file.

Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury: Of the four West Bengal seats going to polls in the third phase is Baharampur, the fort of Congress leader in Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury. A five-time MP from the seat, Mr Chowdhury is known to hold considerable clout in the north Bengal constituency. This time, he is up against the BJP’s Nirmal Kumar Saha and Trinamool’s pick, former cricketer Yusuf Pathan. Of the seven Assembly segments that are part of the Lok Sabha seat, six are with the Trinamool Congress and the ruling party in Bengal will be trying hard to unseat Mr Chowdhury, among the most-vocal critics of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Shivraj Singh Chouhan: The BJP veteran and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has made a return to the Lok Sabha poll arena, and the seat allotted to him is one he won five times in a row. The Vidisha Lok Sabha constituency has been held by the BJP for 35 years now and has been represented by the party’s stalwarts, former PM late Atal Bihari Vajpayee and former Union Minister, late Sushma Swaraj. This time, Mr Chouhan is up against veteran Congress leader Pratap Bhanu Sharma, who won the Vidisha seat twice in the 1980s.

Jyotiraditya Scindia: Four years after his switch to the BJP, Jyotiraditya Scindia is gearing up for his first poll fight with the lotus symbol. The Civil Aviation minister is contesting from his family stronghold Guna, which has earlier been represented by his father Madhavrao Scindia and grandmother Vijaya Raje Scindia. Mr Scindia has recorded four victories from Guna before losing the 2019 election on a Congress ticket. This time, he is up against the Congress’s Rao Yadavendra Singh Yadav.

Digvijaya Singh: Congress veteran Digvijaya Singh, who has been a Rajya Sabha member for a decade now, is now eyeing a Lok Sabha return with a poll pass from Madhya Pradesh’s Rajgarh seat, which has represented twice in the past. Mr Singh is up against the BJP’s Rodmal Nagar, who won from Rajgarh in the 2014 and 2019 elections.

Ratlam (MP):

The Congress will remove the Supreme Court-mandated 50 per cent cap on caste-based reservation and increase quota benefits for people from Dalit, backward and tribal communities, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said today.

Addressing a poll rally at Ratlam in Madhya Pradesh, Mr Gandhi said this election is being fought to save the Constitution. “BJP and RSS want to finish this, change this. And the Congress and INDIA bloc are trying to save this. This Constitution has given you rights on jal (water), jangal (forest), zameen (land). Narendra Modi wants to remove them, he wants full power,” he said, holding a copy of the Constitution.

The BJP leaders, he said, had declared that they would change the Constitution if they win. “That’s why they gave the ‘400 seats’ slogan. But forget 400, they are not getting 150 seats. They say they will remove reservation. I want to tell you from this stage, we will increase reservation beyond the 50 per cent cap. We will give as much reservation as needed for the poor, the backwards, Dalits and adivasis,” he said.

Mr Gandhi’s remarks come amid a high-pitched campaign for the Lok Sabha polls and heated exchanges between the NDA and the INDIA bloc on reservation.

The BJP, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has alleged that the Congress plans to tinker with the reservation for backward classes to benefit Muslims. The Congress has denied the allegations. At a rally in Gujarat Banaskantha, the Prime Minister said, “I challenge the ‘shehzada’ of the Congress as well as his party and its supporters to announce they will never misuse reservation in the name of religion, nor will they play with the Constitution or grant reservation in the name of religion.”

At the Ratlam rally, Mr Gandhi said the media does not show news related to atrocities on Adivasis. “Your children are raped, your land is snatched, but media does not report. There is a reason. There are no Adivasis in these media companies,” he said.

Mr Gandhi said 90 bureaucrats run the country’s government. “They distribute the budgets. Only 1 out of the 90 is an Adivasis, three are from backward classes, three from the Dalit community. Your people are neither in the media nor the corporate world. We want to change this. This is why we have decided to carry out a caste Census and an economic survey,” he said.

Mr Gandhi also assured farmers relief in the form of assured MSP and loan waivers. “These are our guarantees. They will change your life,” he told the crowd.

Ratlam votes on May 13 in the fourth phase of Lok Sabha election. The Congress has fielded former MP and former Union Minister Kantilal Bhuria. Anita Nagar Singh Chauhan is the BJP’s pick from the seat they won in the 2019 election.

New Delhi:

Amid the massive row triggered by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks on the Congress manifesto, party chief Mallikarjun Kharge has written to him, saying that he “would be more than happy to meet you in person to explain our Nyay Patra”.

In an all-out attack on the main Opposition party, the Prime Minister has alleged that the Congress has a wealth redistribution plan that it will put in motion if it comes to power. Under this alleged plan, private property, including houses and jewellery, will be taken away and redistributed, he has said. Even mangalsutra – a jewellery worn by women as a sign of their marriage – won’t be spared, the Prime Minister has claimed.

This line of attack was first employed by the Chief Minister at a rally in Rajasthan’s Banswara Sunday. The Prime Minister alleged that when the Congress was in power under Dr Manmohan Singh, it had said Muslims have the first right on the country’s wealth. “This means that they will gather this property and distribute it among people who have more children, among infiltrators. Will your hard-earned money be given to infiltrators? Do you accept this? The Congress manifesto is saying this.”

The Congress has denied these allegations. Its manifesto says that if elected, the Congress will conduct a nationwide socio-economic and caste census. “Congress will conduct a nation-wide Socio-Economic and Caste Census to enumerate the castes and sub-castes and their socio-economic conditions. Based on the data, we will strengthen the agenda for affirmative action.” The manifesto does not say anything about a plan to redistribute private property.

The Prime Minister, however, has doubled down, repeating his charge in rally after rally.

My letter to PM @narendramodi ji underlining that he has been misinformed on the Congress Nyay Patra. I would also like to meet him in person to explain him our Manifesto, so that he doesn’t make any false statements in future.

Sharing the text of the same —

I am neither… pic.twitter.com/pSDkm4IiBW

— Mallikarjun Kharge (@kharge) April 25, 2024

In his letter addressed to the Prime Minister, Mr Kharge writes he is “neither shocked nor surprised by your language or your speeches”. “It was expected that you and other leaders from your party would start speaking in this manner after you saw the dismal performance of the BJP in the first phase of the elections,” he adds in the letter, shared on X. 

Describing the Narendra Modi government as “suit-boot ki sarkar”, Mr Kharge alleges that it works for the corporates “whose taxes you reduced, while salaried class pays higher taxes”. “The poor pays GST even on food and salt and rich corporate claim GST refunds. That is why when we talk of inequality between rich and poor, you are purposely equating it with Hindu and Muslim. Our manifesto is for the people of India whether they are Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Sikh Jain or Buddhist,” he writes. 

Mr Kharge has accused the Prime Minister of ignoring atrocities faced by poor and backward women of the country. “Today, you talk about their mangalsutra. Isn’t your government responsible for the atrocities against women in Manipur, atrocities against Dalit girls, garlanding of rapists?”

“When farmers are committing suicides under your government, how are you protecting their wives and children? Please read about the Nari Nyay which we will be implementing when we come to power,” he adds.

The letter says it has become a “habit” for the Prime Minister “to seize on few words taken out of context and create a communal divide”.

“You are lowering the dignity of the chair by speaking in this manner. When all of this is over, people will remember that the Prime Minister of the country used such vulgar language for fear of losing an election,” Mr Kharge writes.

The Congress president urges the Prime Minister not to “get carried away” by his supporters clapping at his speeches. “They are not allowing you to hear the crores of right thinking citizens who are disappointed by your speeches,” he writes.

“The Congress Nyay Patra aims at providing Nyay to the youth, women, farmers, labours and marginalised people across all castes and communities. You are being misinformed by your advisors about things that are not even written in our manifesto. I would be more than happy to meet you in person to explain our Nyay Patra so that as the Prime Minister of the country you don’t make any statements that are false,” the Congress president writes before signing off. 

The BJP is yet to respond to the Congress president’s letter. 

Earlier, soon after the Prime Minister’s remarks on Sunday, Mr Kharge had described it as a “hate speech” aimed at diverting attention from key poll issues.

The BJP had responded that the Prime Minister had called a spade a spade and echoed people’s sentiments. BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia told reporters that the opposition is in pain as the Prime Minister has showed them the mirror about its past.

The Congress has flagged the Prime Minister’s remarks to the Election Commission of India, which has sought a response from the BJP leadership. The poll body has also issued a notice to the Congress leadership, seeking its response to a BJP complaint against Rahul Gandhi.

Mumbai:

The Congress’ efforts to lock down seat-sharing deals for the general election have taken another step forward, sources said Friday, after talks with Maharashtra allies for 39 of the state’s 48 seats. 

This follows Rahul Gandhi’s outreach to Shiv Sena (UBT) boss Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar’s faction of the Nationalist Congress Party. The party already has a deal with Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party for 17 of Uttar Pradesh’s 80 seats and one with Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party for three of Delhi’s seven.

The Congress has also reached out to Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool to restart talks that fell through last month after the Bengal Chief Minister refused to budge from her offer – two of the state’s 42 seats.

Congress sources told NDTV the party had lowered its ask to five seats – but a Trinamool spokesperson played that down, declaring “Even with binoculars we are unable to find a third seat for Congress”.

READ | “Even With Binoculars…”: Trinamool Sources On Congress’ 5-Seat Demand

Back in Maharashtra, the INDIA allies are understood to have differences over eight seats, including two in Mumbai – South Central and North West – that the Sena (UBT) and Congress both want.

There is also a delay over demands by Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi boss Prakash Ambedkar, who wants five seats, sources have said. Mr Ambedkar’s party contested 47 seats in the 2019 election but failed to win any. The VBA also contested 236 seats in the 2019 Assembly election and did not open its account.

The Sena (then undivided and allied with the Bharatiya Janata Party) contested 23 Lok Sabha seats in 2019 and won 18, including Mumbai South Central and North West. The Congress contested 25 and only won Chandrapur, while Sharad Pawar’s NCP (also then undivided) fought from 19 seats and won four.

The BJP dominated that election, winning 23 of the 25 seats it contested.

The Congress’ attempts at sealing seat-share deals in Maharashtra – a key state since it sends the most MPs to the Lower House after UP – have been complicated by defections, most recently Ashok Chavan.

READ | “Congress Changing Is Not The Problem, Not Changing Is”: Ashok Chavan To NDTV

The former Chief Minister quit and joined the BJP, in the space of 48 hours, and is now a Rajya Sabha MP. That was after senior leader Milind Deora walked out and into Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s Sena.

Sources have said Mr Thackeray’s party, aware the Congress is on the back-foot, more so given its recent poor electoral record, wants a greater share of Lok Sabha seats from state capital Mumbai.

All parties involved, however, are keen to work out a deal, since they understand the 2024 election is, in many ways, a battle for survival against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s poll-winning machine, the BJP.

Set up in June, the bloc has already lost Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) – a founding member – and Jayant Chaudhary’s Rashtra Lok Dal, which has influence among the Jat community in western UP. Both the JDU and the RLD have aligned with the BJP.

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