The second phase of the 18th Lok Sabha Elections 2024 have started on Friday, April 26. Voters in 88 Lok Sabha constituencies in 13 states and Union Territories will participate in the largest festival of democracy in the world. All 20 seats in Kerala, 14 in Karnataka, 13 in Rajasthan, 8 each in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, 6 in Madhya Pradesh, 5 each in Bihar and Assam, 3 each in Chhattisgarh and West Bengal and 1 each in Tripura, Jammu and Kashmir and Manipur are going for polls in the second phase. Timing of votingThe voting will start from 7 am to 6 pm. Lok Sabha phase 2 elections todayAlthough voting was to be held on 88 seats in the second phase, but after the death of a Bahujan Samaj Party candidate in Betul seat of Madhya Pradesh, now voting will be held in the third phase. The Election Commission said that more than 16 lakh polling officers have been deployed at 1.67 lakh polling stations in this phase. He said that there are more than 15.88 crore voters in this phase, of which 8.08 crore are men, 7.8 crore are women and 5929 are of the third gender. According to him, there are 34.8 lakh first-time voters and 3.28 crore voters in the age group of 20-29 years.Candidates to watchIn the second phase, 1202 candidates are in the fray, of which 1098 are men and 102 are women. The campaign for the second phase ended on Wednesday evening. At least three helicopters, four special trains and 80,000 vehicles have been deployed for movement of polling and security personnel.Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, Union Minister Rajiv Chandrashekhar, actor Arun Govil, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumars brother DK Suresh (Congress), former Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy (Janata Dal-Secular) are included in the list of prominent candidates. Are. Whereas BJP candidates Hema Malini, Om Birla and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat are hoping for third consecutive victory from their respective constituencies. Rahul is the sitting MP from Wayanad and is pitted against Annie Raja of the Communist Party of India (CPI) and K. Is from Surendran. Shashi Tharoor is contesting from Thiruvananthapuram seat for the fourth time and is pitted against Chandrashekhar of BJP and Panniyan Raveendran of Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M).Hema Malini, who has been flying the BJP flag since 2014 on the Mathura Lok Sabha seat, is facing Congresss Mukesh Dhangar, while Congresss Prahlad Gunjal is challenging two-time Kota MP Om Birla. Union Minister Shekhawat is contesting from Jodhpur seat for the third time in a row and he is facing Congress candidate Karan Singh Uchiarda. Tejasvi Surya, sitting MP from Bengaluru South and national president of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), will face Congresss Soumya Reddy.Former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister and Congress leader Bhupesh Baghel is contesting from Rajnandgaon, which has been a BJP stronghold for more than 30 years. Arun Govil, who played the character of Lord Ram in the TV serial Ramayana, is contesting from Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)s Devvrat Kumar Tyagi and Samajwadi Party (SP)s Sunita Verma on the Meerut Lok Sabha seat.
