Long queues of voters were seen at polling stations in the morning as many wanted to exercise their franchise before the temperatures soared.

Apart from the state capital Bhopal, voting is going on in Gwalior, Morena, Bhind Rajgarh, Guna, Sagar, Betul and Vidisha parliamentary constituencies.

The Election Commission has set up 20,456 polling stations across nine seats for over 1.77 crore eligible voters.

Notable candidates in the fray in the third phase include former chief ministers Shivraj Singh Chouhan (Vidisha) and Digvijay Singh (Rajgarh), Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia (Guna), former Bhopal mayor, Alok Sharma (Bhopal) and former Congress MLA Praveen Pathak. Gwalior).

A total of 127 candidates are in the fray from nine parliamentary seats in the state.