Voting for 88 constituencies in the second phase of the 18th Lok Sabha elections across 13 states and union territories has begun. Over 1,200 candidates, including 4 candidates from Outer Manipur, are contesting the polls.
At 1 pm, 39.1% voter turnout was recorded across 13 states and union territories. Manipur, Chhattisgarh and Tripura recorded over 53% voter turnout while Maharashtra recorded the lowest turnout at over 31% polling. In 2019, 40% polling was recorded in these 88 seats till 1pm.
All 20 seats in Kerala, 14 of the 28 seats in Karnataka, 13 seats in Rajasthan, 8 seats each in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, 7 seats in Madhya Pradesh, 5 seats each in Assam and Bihar, 3 seats each in Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, and 1 seat each in Manipur, Tripura and Jammu and Kashmir will go to polls tomorrow.
The prominent contestants in the fray for the second phase are Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar, BJP’s Tejasvi Surya, Hema Malini and Arun Govil, Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Shashi Tharoor, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar’s brother DK Suresh and former Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy.
In 2019, the NDA had won 56 of the 89 seats and the UPA 24. Six of these seats have been redrawn as part of the delimitation exercise.
Out of the seven stages, the first phase of the elections were held last Friday for 102 seats across 21 states and Union territories. The polls saw a voter turnout of around 65.5%.
In the northeast, five of Assam’s nine remaining seats (the first five voted last week) will go to the polls, including the reserved seat of Silchar and the newly-created Darrang-Udalguri.
Also voting is the Tripura East seat, which was held by the Communist Party of India since 1996 and flipped by the BJP’s Rebati Tripura, and the Jammu Lok Sabha seat.
2019 Lok Sabha Election Recap
Of the 88 seats in this phase, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP and its partners (including those that have since allied) won 55, including clean sweeps in Rajasthan, Bengal, Chhattisgarh, and Bihar, as well as also picking up the Tripura and Jammu seats.
The Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) won a seat each; Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar’s brother, DK Suresh, won Bengaluru (Rural), and the JDS won Hassan.
Over in UP, the BJP won seven of eight seats voting today, including the temple towns of Mathura and Meerut, and Ghaziabad and Gautam Buddh Nagar, which border Delhi.
The eighth – Amroha – was won by ex-Chief Minister Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party.
In Maharashtra, the BJP won three of the eight seats polling today. The Shiv Sena (then undivided) won four and an independent lawmaker, Navneet Kaur Rana, who has since joined the BJP won the eighth.
Big Names In Phase 2
Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, Shashi Tharoor, and KC Venugopal are contesting the Wayanad, Thiruvananthapuram, and Alappuzha seats in Kerala.
Former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister and Congress leader Bhupesh Baghel is contesting from Rajnandgaon, a stronghold of the BJP for over 30 years.
