New Delhi, May 7: The Lok Sabha's third phase kicked off at 7 a.m. on Tuesday, as voters began turning out to press the EVM button for their desired candidate in 93 constituencies spanning across 11 states and Union Territories.

Voting will continue till 5 p.m.

The Election Commission of India has deployed robust security measures to uphold the integrity of the electoral process and ensure a free and fair voting environment for all.

It said that around 18.5 lakh polling officials have been deployed to welcome over 17.24 crore voters - 8.85 crore males and 8.39 crore females - across 1.85 lakh polling stations.

There are over 1,300 candidates, including 120 women, in the fray.

Notable contenders include Union Home Minister Amit Shah from Gujrat's Gandhinagar, Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia from Madhya Pradesh's Guna, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury from West Bengal's Baharampur, where his Trinamool Congress rival is former cricketer Yusuf Pathan, Congress heavyweight and former Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh from Madhya Pradesh's Rajgarh, Samajwadi Party's Dimple Yadav from Uttar Pradesh's Mainpuri and Aditya Yadav (Budaun), and NCP-SP's Supriya Sule who faces her sister-in-law and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar's wife Sunetra Pawar in family borough Baramati, among others.

The polling in the third phase will mark the completion of well over the halfway mark in the Lok Sabha elections and complete the electoral process in Assam, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Karnataka and the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu's sole seat.

Polling will also take place in five seats of Bihar, five in West Bengal, 10 in UP, 9 in Madhya Pradesh and 11 in Maharashtra.

While 94 seats were slated to go to polls in the third phase, polling in J&K's Anantnag-Rajouri seat was rescheduled for the sixth phase, while it was called off in Gujarat's Surat, as the BJP candidate has been elected unopposed. However, Madhya Pradesh's Betul, where polling was due to be held in the second phase but was rescheduled due to the death of the BSP candidate, has been added.

(IANS)

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