New Delhi: Amidst tight security, polling began today (May 5, 2004) for the third phase of Lok Sabha elections covering 83 constituencies in seven States, including the prestigious Lucknow constituency where Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee is seeking re-election.

An estimated 10.72 crore voters are expected to exercise their franchise and choose from among 921 aspirants in fray, which include UP Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, Union Ministers Murli Manohar Joshi, Sharad Yadav, Shahnawaz Hussain, Digvijay Singh, Subhash Maharia and Prahlad Patel among others.

Also in the race today are former Bihar Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav taking on Sharad Yadav in Madhepura, former Lok Sabha Speaker Balram Jakhar contesting from Churu in Rajasthan.

Elections 2004-The Drama unfolds...

As many as 90,000 personnel of Central para-military forces, in addition to local police forces, stood guard at 1,08,615 polling booths, over 45 per cent of which have been declared sensitive and hyper-sensitive to ensure smooth poll.

A major chunk of deployment is in Jammu and Kashmir where Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Border Security Force (BSF) together have nearly 33,300 personnel for the lone seat of Anantnag. Ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti is in fray against CPM (Communist Party Marxist) leader Yusuf Tarigami in Anantnag, where all but five of the 1049 polling booths have been declared sensitive or super-sensitive.

While shoot at sight orders have been issued against booth capturing in Bihar, Election Commission has ordered videography in 14 sensitive constituencies of UP, including Lucknow, Mainpuri, Kannauj, Allahabad, Sitapur, Hathras, Etawah, Firozabad and Banda.