Voters brave heatwave as phase-3 polling concludes, experts weigh in

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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From the river islands in Assam to the Gujarat coast in the West, and from Coastal Karnataka in the south to Agra in the North, as many as 93 seats across India went to the polls in the third phase of the Lok Sabha Elections.

Voters braved the scorching heat and sometimes physical challenges to cast their vote. The elections are happening at a time when temperatures across large parts of India are touching 40 degrees Celsius.

India, along with large parts of Asia, is experiencing one of the hottest summers on record. A presiding officer at a polling booth in Bihar died from a heart attack as voting was underway. A post-mortem will be conducted to ascertain the cause of his death.

The BJP had won 71 seats out of these 93 in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Election season would officially conclude for over half the Lok Sabha seats after polling ends today.

Voting took place for 25 out of the 26 seats in Gujarat. The BJP has already won the Surat seat unopposed. Prime Minister Modi cast his vote at a polling booth in Gandhinagar, where Amit Shah is the BJP candidate.

Speaking to CNBC-TV18, Rajiv Pathak, Editor, News18 Gujarat said, “Last time in 2019, the voting percentage was around 64%. Despite the scorching heat temperature, around 40 to 43 degrees in most parts of Gujarat, the average percentage by five o’clock was 55%. So by the end of the day, the voting percentage should be around 64%.”

He added, “BJP was struggling in some seats because of the Kshatriya agitation. But in today’s polling, we could not see much impact on the polling and first of all Gujarat always votes to make Narendra Modi Prime Minister. Narendra Modi has been Gujarat Chief Minister and if he becomes prime minister then even if he contests from Varanasi, the people of Gujarat feel that he is a Gujarati Prime Minister.”

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Fourteen seats in Karnataka went to polls, mostly in the northern districts. The BJP had won all in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. This is the last phase of polling in the state.

Eleven seats across Maharashtra went to polls. The BJP and the undivided Shiv Sena had won four seats each in 2019. Sitting MP Supriya Sule and Ajit Pawar’s wife Sunetra Pawar faced off in Baramati, the Pawar family bastion.

Syed Zafar Islam, National Spokesperson for the BJP, expressed confidence in the party’s prospects, particularly in Maharashtra.

He said, “The honourable Pirme Minister has won the confidence and the admiration of the people of this great country. We are not overly concerned. Supriya ji is going to lose for sure because the man who is working on the ground is Ajit Pawar and his wife and everyone knows the kind of work they have done. The people have seen who has done the hard work on the ground and they will vote for Mrs Pawar rather than Supriya ji. So we are confident of our victory; we are not overly concerned.”

Voting also took place for both Lok Sabha seats in Goa. Polling also took place in 31 seats across Hindi heartland states—Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

Voters in four seats in West Bengal and four constituencies in Assam cast their votes as well. Polling season concludes in Assam after phase 3.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow