"People are disappointed, will vote for progress," claims Congress' Priyank Kharge

Amidst the ongoing polls, Chittapur MLA and State Minister for IT/BT and Rural Development and Panchayat Raj, Priyank Kharge expressed confidence in the Congress' win and said that people are disappointed with the BJP and this time, they will vote for progress.

Amidst the ongoing polls, Chittapur MLA and State Minister for IT/BT and Rural Development and Panchayat Raj, Priyank Kharge expressed confidence in the Congress' win and said that people are disappointed with the BJP and this time, they will vote for progress. Speaking with ANI, Priyank Kharge said, "I am very confident that the Congress government is going to be extremely triumphant... The last 10 years of Modi's tenure have been disastrous for India and Kalaburagi. The people are quite disappointed and this time they will vote for progress."

The Congress has fielded party chief Mallikarjun Kharge's son-in-law Radhakrishna Doddamani against BJP's Dr Umesh Jadhav from Kalaburagi. Earlier in the day, Jadhav after casting his vote had said, "...I have full faith that BJP will win from the seat of Kalaburagi with the majority of votes... The voting for 14 seats is already done and the remaining 14 seats will also be won by the Bhartiya Janta Party. And in the country, it will be 100 per cent '400 Paar.'"

The polling started for 93 Lok Sabha seats across 12 states and union territories in the third phase of the general election on Tuesday. The states and union territories where the elections are being held in this phase are Assam (4), Bihar (5), Chhattisgarh (7), Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu (2), Goa (2), Gujarat (25), Karnataka (14), Maharashtra (11), Madhya Pradesh (8), Uttar Pradesh (10) and West Bengal (4). The BJP has bagged the Surat seat unopposed.

In this phase, more than 1300 candidates, including around 120 women, are in the fray. A total of 17.24 crore voters are eligible to cast their franchise in this phase at 1.85 lakh polling stations. Seventy-five delegates from 23 countries will see the poll process, the poll panel said.

Voting will not take place for Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha seat on Tuesday as the Election Commission of India (ECI) has postponed the polling to the sixth phase to be held on May 25. Originally, voting was scheduled to be held on 94 Lok Sabha seats in the third phase. Prominent leaders to contest in today's poll battle include Union Home Minister Amit Shah, former Madhya Pradesh chief ministers Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Digvijaya Singh, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, Samajwadi Party leader Dimple Yadav, and NCP (SP) leader Supriya Sule, among others.

In the 2019 general election, the BJP won 72 of the 93 seats that go to the polls today. The Lok Sabha elections are being held across seven phases, from April 19 to June 1. The counting is scheduled for June 4.

The Narendra Modi-led BJP is seeking a third term in power, while the opposition INDIA bloc is aiming to wrest power by stopping the juggernaut. (ANI)

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