The 18th Lok Sabha elections are currently in their second phase, with voting for 88 seats taking place across 13 states and union territories. There are more than 1,200 people running for office, four of them are from outside Manipur.
13 states and union territories reported a 60.7% voter participation at 5 p.m. Over 70% of voters turned out in Manipur, Chhattisgarh, Bengal, Assam, and Tripura, while the lowest voter participation was reported in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Maharashtra, with 52.6%, 53%, and 53.5%, respectively.
Kerala’s twenty seats, fourteen of Karnataka’s twenty-eight seats, thirteen seats in Rajasthan, eight seats each in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, seven seats in Madhya Pradesh, five seats each in Assam and Bihar, three seats each in Chhattisgarh and West Bengal,and tomorrow’s elections will be held for one seat each in Manipur, Tripura, and Jammu and Kashmir.
Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar, BJP members Tejasvi Surya, Hema Malini, and Arun Govil, Rahul Gandhi and Shashi Tharoor of the Congress, DK Suresh, the brother of Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, and former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy are among the notable contenders for the second phase.
Of the 89 seats in 2019, the UPA had 24 and the NDA 56. As part of the delimitation process, six of these seats have been redrew.
The first round of the seven stages of the elections, which will include 102 seats spread across 21 states and Union territory, took place last Friday. A little over 65.5% of voters participated in the polls.
