The Election Commission on Tuesday said 1,351 candidates are in the fray for the third phase of the Lok Sabha polls.
In a statement, the ECI said, “1,351 candidates from 12 States /UTs to contest elections in the third phase of Lok Sabha elections. This includes eight contesting candidates for the adjourned poll in Betul Parliamentary Constituency (PC) of Madhya Pradesh. Additionally, one candidate from Surat PC in Gujarat has been elected unopposed.”
According to the poll panel, a total of 2,963 nominations were filed for 95 PCs (including Betul) across 12 States/UTs going for polls in the third phase for the general elections.
After the scrutiny of all nominations filed, 1563 nominations were found to be valid, it said.
The ECI said in the third phase, Gujarat had a maximum of 6,58 nomination forms from 26 PCs, followed by Maharashtra with 519 nominations from 11 PCs.
Osmanabad parliamentary seat in Maharashtra received a maximum of 77 nomination forms followed by Bilaspur seat in Chhattisgarh with 68 nomination forms, it said.
In the third phase, polling in the 94 PCs along with Betul seat will take place on 7th May.
The States and UTs included in the third phase are Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Goa, Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal.