New Delhi, May 3
The campaigning for the third phase of polling for 83
parliamentary seats in seven states ended today amidst exit poll predictions of
a hung Parliament.
Electoral fortunes of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee
from Lucknow and 920 other candidates, including 64 women, would be decided by
10.72 crore voters on May 5.
States where polling would be held were Uttar
Pradesh (30) Rajasthan (25), Bihar and Madhya Pradesh (12 each) Arunachal
Pradesh (2) and one seat each in Nagaland and Jammu and Kashmir.
As exit polls,
after the first two phases of polling, had predicted a hung Parliament there
were talks of new alliances. The BJP and the Congress had doubled their efforts
to swing the electoral fortunes in their favour.
During this phase of
campaigning, political parties were strategically channelising their energy in
those seats where aggressive campaigning could tilt the tide in their
favour.
After witnessing the electoral malpractices and allegations of
large-scale violence during polls during the first two phases, the Election
Commission had decided to deploy Central paramilitary forces in large numbers in
sensitive polling stations.
Nearly 90,000 personnel of Central paramilitary
forces would be deployed for election duties in seven states going to polls on
Wednesday.
The deployment included 458 companies of CRPF, 175 of BSF, 91 of
CISF, eight of ITBP, 28 of Railway Protection Force (RPF), 25 of Special
Services Bureau (SSB) and 24 of State Armed Police forces, sources said.
The
major chunk of deployment would be made in Jammu and Kashmir where the CRPF and
the BSF would together deploy nearly 33,300 personnel in one Lok Sabha seat of
Anantnag, they said.
In Uttar Pradesh, where Prime Minister Atal Bihari
Vajpayee was one of the candidates in fray in this round, around 14,500
personnel of Central paramilitary forces would be deployed to ensure free, fair
and peaceful polling, they said.
The key contests in the May 5 elections
included Madehpura in Bihar, where Sharad Yadav was seeking re-election against
Laloo Yadav who was defeated in the last polls. HRD Minister Murli Manohar Joshi
was seeking re-election from Allahabad, Mulayam Singh was contesting from
Mainpuri, a seat he once held. Akhilesh Singh, his son, was also in fray from
Kannauj.
Other prominent personalities, whose fate would be decided on
Wednesday included former UP Chief Minister Kalyan Singh seeking election from
Bulandshahr, Union Ministers Shahnawaz Hussain from Kishanganj in Bihar and
Prahlad Patel seeking re-election from Chhindwara against Congress veteran
Kamalnath.
The first two phases saw polling in a little over half of the total
of 543 constituencies on April 20, April 22 and April 26. The last phase on May
10 would cover 189 constituencies.
While polling so far has covered 278
constituencies in 18 states and Union Territories, on May 10 elections would be
held in 183 constituencies in 17 states and Union Territories as also to the
32-member Sikkim state Assembly. Counting of votes would be taken up on May 13.
