Lucknow: Voting began on Tuesday for 116 Lok Sabha seats, including all constituencies in Gujarat and Kerala, with BJP president Amit Shah, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and several Union ministers among prominent candidates in the fray. About 18.56 crore voters are eligible for voting in the third phase of the elections, for which 2.10 lakh polling booths/stations have been set up.

The Election Commission has made elaborate security arrangements. Besides all seats in Gujarat (26) and Kerala (20), voting will be held in four seats in Assam, five in Bihar, seven in Chhattisgarh, 14 each in Karnataka and Maharashtra, six in Odisha, 10 in Uttar Pradesh, five in West Bengal, two in Goa, and one each in Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu and Tripura. Voting for the crucial third phase for 10 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh began on Tuesday that will decide the fate of four members of SP patron Mulayam Singh Yadav's clan, besides senior party leader Azam Khan and his bete noir BJP's Jaya Prada.