On Friday morning, the second round of voting for the Lok Sabha elections got off. In 12 states and a union territory, 88 constituencies—including Wayanad, home of Congress icon Rahul Gandhi—are casting ballots to select their MPs to the lower house of parliament.
Voting for Kerala’s 20 seats began at 7 a.m. today. Elections are scheduled to be held today in 14 seats in Karnataka, 13 seats in Rajasthan, 8 seats in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, 6 seats in Madhya Pradesh, 5 seats in Assam and Bihar, 3 seats in West Bengal and Chhattisgarh, and 1 seat each in Manipur, Tripura, and Jammu with Kashmir.
Voting in Madhya Pradesh’s Betul was postponed due to the passing of the BSP candidate, while 89 seats were planned to be polled in the second round of the elections.
In the second round of the Lok Sabha elections, 15.88 crore voters can exercise their fundamental right. There are 1.67 lakh voting places where 8.08 crore male voters, 7.8 crore female voters, and 5,929 voters of third gender are eligible to cast ballots. Among them are 3.28 crore youthful voters, meaning those between the ages of 20 and 29. There are also 34.8 lakh first-time voters.
In the second round of the general elections, 1202 candidates—102 women and two members of the third gender category—will try their luck.
Today’s contestants include political heavyweights such as Rahul Gandhi, Shashi Tharoor, Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar, actor-turned-politician Arun Govil, DK Suresh (Cong), brother of Karnataka deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar, former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy (JDS), Hema Malini of the BJP, Om Birla, and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat.
The incumbent Wayanad MP, Rahul Gandhi, is running against Annie Raja of the CPI and K Surendran of the BJP. The Congress candidate for Thiruvananthapuram, Tharoor, is running against Rajeev Chandrashekhar of the BJP. Malini, who has been the Mathura constituency’s representative since 2014, is running against Mukesh Dhangar of the Congress, while Om Birla, a two-term Kota MP, is up against Prahlad Gunjal of the Congress. Shekhawat is aiming for a third victory from the seat of Jodhpur. Sowmya Reddy of the Congress is running against Tejasvi Surya.