Union Minister Pralhad Joshi casts vote, confident of winning all 14 seats going to polls in Karnataka today

Amidst the ongoing polls, Union Minister and Bhartiya Janata Party candidate from Dharwad, Pralhad Joshi casts his vote at polling booth number 111 in Hubballi, Dharwad and said that the party will win 14 out of 14 seats in the state.

Amidst the ongoing polls, Union Minister and Bhartiya Janata Party candidate from Dharwad, Pralhad Joshi casts his vote at polling booth number 111 in Hubballi, Dharwad and said that the party will win 14 out of 14 seats in the state. On being asked about the number of seats that the party will win, Joshi said, "We will win 14 out of 14 seats (in the state)."

Meanwhile, while speaking to ANI, Pralhad Joshi also spoke about the 'obscene videos' case involving JD(S) MP Prajwal Revanna and said, "... It is a very serious case. We urge the state government because they have failed in detaining him. Even though the clipping came out well in advance, they waited for Gowda Belt to vote and after that they allowed him to go outside. Had they filed the FIR and informed the Central Government, we would have detained him. But they did not do it." Congress has fielded Vinod Asooti, who will be contesting for the first time in the Lok Sabha elections from the Dharwad Lok Sabha constituency.

From 1980 to 1996, the Dharwad seat was a Congress stronghold but BJP's Vijay Sankeshwar won the seat in 1996 and broke the Congress' winning streak. Since then, the BJP has retained the seat. In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, BJP's Prahlad Joshi received 6,84,837 votes (56.4 per cent) while the Congress candidate Vinay Kulkarni came second with 4,79,765 votes (39.5 per cent). BSPs Irappa Bharamappa Madar 6,344 votes (0.5 per cent).

The polling is going on in 93 Lok Sabha seats across 12 states and union territories in the third phase of the general election today. The states and union territories where the elections are being held in this phase are Assam (4), Bihar (5), Chhattisgarh (7), Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu (2), Goa (2), Gujarat (25), Karnataka (14), Maharashtra (11), Madhya Pradesh (8), Uttar Pradesh (10) and West Bengal (4). The BJP has bagged the Surat seat unopposed.

In this phase, more than 1300 candidates, including around 120 women, are in the fray. A total of 17.24 crore voters are eligible to cast their franchise in this phase at 1.85 lakh polling stations. In the 2019 general election, the BJP won 72 of the 93 seats that go to the polls today.

The Lok Sabha elections are being held across seven phases, from April 19 to June 1. The counting is scheduled for June 4. The Narendra Modi-led BJP is seeking a third term in power, while the opposition INDIA bloc is aiming to wrest power by stopping the juggernaut. (ANI)

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