Campaigning for the third and last phase of the parliamentary election in Madhya Pradesh came to an end at 6 pm. The ten constituencies that go to the polls in this phase include Vidisha, Dewas, Indore, Dhar, Ujjain, Ratlam, Mandsaur, Khandwa, Khargone and Betul. Polling for these seats would be held on Thursday, April 24.
A total of 16,960,213 voters, including 8,171,532 women, are eligible to exercise their franchise in 19,444 polling booths while a total 155,552 poll officials have been deployed.
Prominent candidates of this phase from the state are sitting MP and Bharatiya Janata Party's leader of opposition in the lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj, former Union minister and former state Congress president Kantilal Bhuria and current state Congress president Arun Yadav.
In Vidisha, BJP's Sushma Swaraj is pitted against Congress candidate lakshman Singh. lakshman is the younger brother of Congress general secretary and former state chief minister Digvijaya Singh. Swaraj romped home in the 2009 lok Sabha election by a margin of over four lakh votes.
Vidisha has been a stronghold of the BJP since 1989. Former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan have tasted victory on this seat in the past.
In Ratlam, Congress candidate Kantilal Bhuriya is fighting Dileepsingh Bhuriya of the BJP. Kantilal Bhuriya is a former Union minister and a four-time MP.
State Congress chief Arun Yadav has locked horns for the Khandwa seat against Nandkumar Singh Chouhan of the BJP. Here, the Aam Aadmi Party has fielded Alok Agarwal. Yadav is seeking re-election from this seat. For the Indore seat, BJP candidate Sumitra Mahajan will be trying her luck against Satyanarayan Patel of the Congress.
Of the ten parliamentary constituencies going to the polls on Thursday, the Congress won six in the 2009 lok Sabha polls. Of the state's 29 lok Sabha constituencies, voting for 19 seats was completed in the first two phases on April 10 and April 17. On April 10, nine constituencies went to polling while on April 17 polling was held for 10 constituencies.