A 48-hour silence period at 94 Lok Sabha constituencies spread across 12 States and Union Territories commenced at 6 p.m. on May 5 with the conclusion of campaigning for the third phase of the Lok Sabha election. Voting will take place on May 7. Polling for more than half of the total number of constituencies will be completed by the end of this phase.
Among the prominent contestants in the fray in the third phase are Union Home Minister Amit Shah (Gandhinagar, Gujarat); Union Minister Pralhad Joshi (Dharwad, Karnataka); Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia (Guna, Madhya Pradesh); former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan (Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh); Congress leader Digvijaya Singh (Rajgarh, Madhya Pradesh); Samajwadi Party’s Dimple Yadav (Mainpuri, Uttar Pradesh); and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MP Supriya Sule (Baramati, Maharashtra).
Section 126 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 prohibits election campaign activities through public meetings, processions, etc., and display of election matter by means of television and similar platforms, during the silence period.
