Lok Sabha election 2024: 88 seats, Kerala highest. 5 facts about phase 2 polling

Voting for the second phase of the Lok Sabha election 2024 is underway in 88 seats across 13 states and union territories on Friday, April 26. The polling began at 7am and will continue till 6pm.

The counting of 543 Lok Sabha seats votes and the result announcement will take place on June 4.

Initially, 89 constituencies were scheduled to go to polls on April 26. However, the Election Commission of India later announced that the voting in Madhya Pradesh's Betul would not take place during the second phase due to the death of a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate.

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Kerala has the highest number of constituencies as all 20 seats went poll on Friday, followed by Karnataka with 14 seats. The other states which are voting on Friday include Assam, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Tripura, and Manipur. The poll for the Jammu parliamentary seat will also be held on Friday.

Lok Sabha election 2024: 5 about phase 2 polling

1. As many as 1,202 candidates, including 1,098 males and 102 females are in the fray. There are 8.08 crore male and 7.8 crore female voters among the electorates who will decide the fate of candidates. As many as 5,929 third-gender electors will also exercise their franchise in the second phase of polls.
2. According to the Election Commission of India, 34.8 lakh first-time voters are registered to cast their votes.
3. There are over 14.78 lakh registered 85 years old, 42,226 voters above 100 years and 14.7 lakh PwD voters for phase two who have been allowed to vote from the comfort of their homes.
4. Women, including security staff, will completely manage more than 4,100 polling stations, and over 640 polling stations by persons with disabilities (PwDs). Polling stations in all states and UTs except Bihar and Kerala have less than 1000 average electors per polling station.
5. Key contests: Congress leader and sitting MP Rahul Gandhi is recontesting against Annie Raja of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). Both of them are part of the national INDIA alliance but are rivals in Kerala. Congress has been winning in Wayanad since 2009 general elections. The BJP, which is yet to open its account in Kerala, has fielded its state president K Surendran in the constituency. Senior Congress leader and former Union minister Shashi Tharoor won this seat in the 2009, 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The former UN diplomat is contesting against BJP leader and Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar and CPI's Pannyan Raveendran. Sitting Congress MP DK Suresh, the brother of Karnataka deputy CM DK Shivakumar, is pitted against BJP's Cholenahalli Nanjappa Manjunath, son-in-law of former prime minister HD Deve Gowda.