Source: The Sangai Express / PTI
New Delhi, April 28 2009:
Campaigning ended today for the third phase of Lok Sabha elections to 107 seats on April 30, when the electorate will deliver its verdict on political titans Sonia Gandhi and LK Advani.
Gandhi and Advani are among the 1,567 candidates in the fray in the third phase polls to elect 107 MPs from nine states and two union territories.
There are 101 women candidates.
This round is as big as it can get in terms of stature of candidates.
Gandhi is the head of the Congress party that heads the UPA coalition, while Advani has been projected by the BJP as its Prime Ministerial candidate.
Electioneering was heated with the BJP and the Left charging the Congress with misusing CBI, which has dropped the name of Ottavio Quattrocchi, an accused in the Bofors case, from its list of wanted people.
The Congress hit out at the saffron party after the Supreme Court ordered a probe into Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's role in the 2002 riots in the State.
Prominent candidates in this round include former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, JD-U chief Sharad Yadav, former Karnataka Chief Minister S Bangarappa and union Ministers Sriprakash Jaiswal and Jyotiraditya Scindia.
Polling for 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat will be completed in one-go.
Besides Gujarat, polling will be held in 16 seats in Madhya Pradesh, 15 in Uttar Pradesh, 14 in West Bengal, 11 each in Bihar and Karnataka, 10 in Maharashtra and one each in Jammu and Kashmir, Sikkim, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.