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5 states set for third round of polling

The heat and dust kicked up by the campaign for the third phase of the general election died down today as voters in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh prepared to elect 78 more members to the 13th Lok Sabha on Saturday.

Polling in 15 states and Union territories for 268 seats of the 543-member Lower House of Parliament has already been completed in the first two phases of the five-stage election.

Among the 859 candidates in the third phase are Union Human Resources Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi (Allahabad), former defence minister and Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav (Kannauj), ex-bandit queen Phoolan Devi (Mirzapur), Union Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha (Hazaribagh), Union Minister of State for Forests and Environment Babulal Marandi (Dumka), former Union minister K K Tewari (Ranchi), Congress spokesman Ajit Jogi (Shahdol), former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Sunderlal Patwa (Hoshangabad) and S Jaipal Reddy (Miryalaguda).

Simultaneous elections are also being held to 97 seats of the Andhra Pradesh state assembly.

Owing to the murder of Telugu Desam Party candidate P Purushottam Rao in Sirpur, election to this assembly segment has been postponed. Thus, the number of seats in the 294-member assembly to which elections have been postponed to October 3 because of poll violence has risen to seven.

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