Rahul Ghandhi and Hema Malini.
Voting for the second of seven-phase Lok Sabha elections began at 7am on Friday, in 88 constituencies across 12 states and a Union territory (Jammu and Kashmir), The Hindustan Times reported.
All eyes are on Congress party's Rahul Gandhi, who is looking to retain his Wayanad seat in Kerala, as Lok Sabha elections phase 2 started this morning.
Some high-profile names in the fray in this phase include the Congress party’s Rahul Gandhi and Shashi Tharoor, who are looking to retain Kerala’s Wayanad and Thiruvananthapuram respectively; all 20 seats in the southern state will poll today, according to the news.
Similarly, Hema Malini representing the BJP, will hope for a hattrick from Uttar Pradesh’s Mathura. Overall, as many as 1,202 candidates are in the fray from these 88 constituencies, with 158.8 million people, including 32.8 million young voters and 3.4 million first-timers, eligible to vote.
The 12 states and the Union Territory where polling will take place in this leg are: Kerala (20/20), Karnataka (14/28), Rajasthan (13/25), Uttar Pradesh (8/80), Maharashtra (8/48), Madhya Pradesh (6/29), Assam (5/14), Bihar (5/40), Chhattisgarh (3/11), West Bengal (3/42), Manipur (1/2), Tripura (1/2), and Jammu (1/5).
In the first leg, voting for which was conducted last Friday, 102 constituencies across 21 states and Union Territories went to polls.
Phase 1: April 19
Phase 2: April 26
Phase 3: May 7
Phase 4: May 13
Phase 5: May 20
Phase 6: May 25
Phase 7: June 1
Counting (for all 543 seats): June 4
(Hema Malini (left) and Arun Govil)
(With inputs from The Hindustan Times)
