As the second phase of Lok Sabha Elections unfolds across 13 states and union territories of India, 9 states have already surpassed the 50% polling mark by 3 pm. Leading the charge is Chhattisgarh, boasting a 63.92% turnout across its three Lok Sabha constituencies, closely followed by Assam with an estimated 60.32% turnout among its 77 lakh eligible voters spread across five parliamentary constituencies.
However, Maharashtra currently records the lowest voter turnout, standing at 43.01%, and Uttar Pradesh at 44.13%. Read Kerala Election Live Updates here.
In Bihar, fifty candidates are contesting across five seats, with over 93 lakh eligible voters. A turnout of 44.24% was recorded till 3 pm. Meanwhile, three Lok Sabha constituencies in West Bengal saw over 60% turnout, and more than 57% of voters cast their ballots in the first four hours of polling in the Jammu constituency.
Madhya Pradesh registered a turnout of 48.68% across its six Lok Sabha constituencies, while Rajasthan recorded 50.27% voter turnout till 3 pm across its 13 parliamentary constituencies. With less than one hour left for voting to end, over 50% turnout was reported in Karnataka, where polling is underway in 14 Lok Sabha constituencies.
Kerala and 12 other states and union territories went to polls in the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections on Friday. Polling was scheduled from 7 am in 88 constituencies in this phase.
The polling in all 20 constituencies in Kerala began at 7 am after mock polls at 6 am in the presence of representatives of political parties.
The remaining five phases of the polls will continue till June 1, with counting of votes scheduled on June 4. The first of the seven-phase elections was held last Friday for 102 seats across 21 states and Union territories.
As many as 1,202 candidates, including prominent faces such as Rahul Gandhi, Om Birla and Hema Malini, will try their electoral luck in phase two of the Lok Sabha elections on Friday. The list also includes Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar of BJP and former Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy (JDS) among others. Of the 1,202 candidates in the fray, 1,098 are men, 102 are women and two are from the third gender category.
More than 16 lakh polling officials have been deployed across 1.67 lakh polling stations for over 15.88 crore voters, the Election Commission (EC) said. Voters include 8.08 crore males, 7.8 crore females and 5,929 third-gender electors. As many as 34.8 lakh first-time voters were registered to cast their votes. Additionally, there were 3.28 crore young voters in the age group of 20-29 years, the poll authority said. Voter awareness and facilitation measures have been further geared up for higher turnout this time.
Keeping in mind the heatwave, the EC has extended polling time in several polling stations of four constituencies in Bihar. Polling for the Betul seat in Madhya Pradesh has been rescheduled to the third phase due to the death of a candidate from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
At least three helicopters, four special trains and nearly 80,000 vehicles have been deployed to ferry poll and security personnel. Webcasting will be done in more than 50 per cent of the polling stations, along with the deployment of micro-observers in all polling stations.
Polling stations in all states and UTs, except Bihar and Kerala, have less than 1,000 average electors. In Bihar, the average number of voters per polling station is 1,008, while it is 1,102 in Kerala.
In Kerala, a total of 2.75 crore voters will be able to choose their MPs from 194 contestants. The Congress-led UDF had swept 19 of the 20 seats in the 2019 polls while the CPM-led LDF will be eager to improve on their tally from one in the previous edition. Meanwhile, the BJP-led NDA would be hoping to open their account in the General Elections in Kerala.
Besides Kerala, polling will be held in 14 of the 28 seats in Karnataka, 13 seats in Rajasthan, 8 seats each in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, 6 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.
Though voting was to be held for 89 seats in the second phase, polling for the Betul seat in Madhya Pradesh has been rescheduled to the third phase due to the death of a candidate from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
30,238 EVMs in Kerala
Chief Electoral Officer Sanjay Kaul said 30,238 Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and 63,100 bottles of ink, to mark the fingers of the voters to prevent fraudulent voting, will be used for polling in Kerala. If any of the machines fail, reserve ones will be provided through the respective sector officers, Kaul said in a statement.
A webcasting system has also been put in place to monitor all booths in eight districts such as Kasaragod, Kannur, Wayanad, Malappuram, Kozhikode, Palakkad, Thrissur and Thiruvananthapuram. In the remaining six districts, 75 per cent of the booths would be monitored by this system, Kaul said.
(With PTI inputs.)
