April 25th 2024.
New Delhi is all set for the second phase of Lok Sabha polls on Friday. This phase will cover 89 seats in 13 states, with the main highlight being Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's bid for a second term from Wayanad in Kerala. The state of Kerala will see all 20 seats going to polls, along with 14 seats in Karnataka, 13 in Rajasthan, 8 each in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, 7 in Madhya Pradesh, 5 each in Assam and Bihar, 3 each in Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, and 1 each in Manipur, Tripura, and Jammu and Kashmir.
This phase will witness a total of 1206 candidates, including four from Outer Manipur constituency, vying for the people's vote. The campaigning for this phase came to an end on Wednesday evening with prominent candidates like Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar, and actor-turned-politician Arun Govil in the fray. Other notable candidates include Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar's brother DK Suresh, and former Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy. On the other hand, BJP's Hema Malini, Om Birla, and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat are seeking a hat-trick of wins from their respective constituencies.
The first phase of the seven-phase elections was held last Friday, covering 102 seats across 21 states and Union territories. The voter turnout for this phase was around 65.5%. After the second phase on Friday, the polling will be completed in Kerala, Rajasthan, and Tripura. The first phase of polling on April 19 saw a completion of voting in all seats of Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Mizoram, Nagaland, Puducherry, Sikkim, and Lakshadweep.
In the 2019 elections, the NDA had won 56 out of these 89 seats, while the UPA secured 24. However, due to the delimitation exercise, six of these seats have been redrawn. In Kerala, a total of 2,77,49,159 people are eligible to cast their votes, with over five lakh being first-time voters. Rahul Gandhi, the sitting MP from Wayanad, is facing competition from CPI's Annie Raja and BJP's K Surendran.
Meanwhile, Shashi Tharoor is aiming for his fourth consecutive win from the Thiruvananthapuram seat. He is up against BJP's Rajeev Chandrasekhar and CPI's Pannyan Raveendran. Hema Malini, who has been representing the Mathura constituency since 2014, is contesting against Congress' Mukesh Dhangar. Similarly, Om Birla, a two-time MP from Kota, is facing Congress' Prahlad Gunjal.
Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat is eyeing a third consecutive win from the Jodhpur seat, where he is competing against Congress' Karan Singh Uchiyarda. The sitting MP for Bangalore South, Tejasvi Surya, who is also the national president of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, will face a tough competition from Congress' Sowmya Reddy. In a notable move, former Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh and Congress leader Bhupesh Baghel is contesting from Rajnandgaon, a stronghold of the BJP for over 30 years.
The elections for the Alappuzha seat in Kerala have become a matter of pride for the Congress party. General Secretary K C Venugopal is making a comeback to the Lok Sabha polls after 2014, with the party aiming to regain the only seat it lost to the CPI-led Left Democratic Front in their landslide 19-1 victory in Kerala in the 2019 polls. Venugopal has a successful track record, having won the Alappuzha Assembly seat thrice in a row (1996, 2001, and 2006) and being elected to the Lok Sabha from Alappuzha in 2009 and 2014. In 2019, he did not contest after being elevated to the post of AICC General Secretary.
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