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 9 am, 9.3% voter turnout was recorded across 13 states and union territories. Chhattisgarh and Manipur recorded over 15% voter turnout while Maharashtra recorded the lowest turnout at over 7% polling. In 2019, over 10% polling was recorded in these 88 seats till 9 am.
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%.
Around 9.84 per cent of over 93 lakh voters in five Lok Sabha constituencies of Bihar cast their votes till 9 am. Polling started at 7 am in Kishanganj, Katihar, Purnia, Bhagalpur and Banka and will continue till 6 pm. As many as 45.15 lakh women and 306 belonging to the third gender, will vote for 50 candidates.
Senior citizens dominated the early hours of voting in Noida in the Gautam Buddh Nagar constituency as polling began here Friday morning in the second phase of the Lok Sabha election.
The queues were short and many booths reported brisk voting in the first hour, according to some of the electors.
Kerala recorded a voter turnout of 11.98 per cent till 9 am on all 20 Lok Sabha seats.
13.82 per cent of voters cast their ballots till 9 am in six Lok Sabha constituencies in Madhya Pradesh.
 Around 17 per cent of voters cast their votes till 9 a.m. in Tripura East Lok Sabha constituency.
Congress MP and candidate from Thiruvananthapuram, Shashi Tharoor queued up outside a polling booth in the constituency as he awaited his turn to cast his vote. Mr Tharoor, who has held the seat since 2009, is facing a challenge as the BJP has named Union Minister of State Rajeev Chandrashekhar.
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