Congress leader Mumtaz Patel casts her vote in Gujarat's Bharuch

Bharuch: Congress leader Mumtaz Patel cast her vote at a polling booth in Bharuch during the third phase of the Lok Sabha elections on Tuesday.
After casting her vote, the Congress leader said, "I request the citizens to exercise their right to vote... In the last 10 years, we have seen the BJP government. We have seen the trailer. We don't want a dictatorship in the future..."
The polling is going on for 93 Lok Sabha seats across 12 states and union territories in the third phase of the general election on Tuesday.
Bharuch is one of the 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat. The Bharuch parliamentary constituency is represented by BJP leader Mansukhbhai Dhanjibhai Vasava.
BJP's sitting MP Mansukhbhai Vasava is contesting against Aam Aadmi Party's Chaitar Vasava.
Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel and other leaders also cast their votes.
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. 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.