140 constituencies go to polls tomorrow

People in 12 states and union territories will vote tomorrow to elect 140 MPs in the second phase of Lok Sabha elections being contested by big names including Rahul Gandhi, Sharad Pawar, George Fernandes, Ramvilas Paswan and Sushma Swaraj with their campaigning focussed mostly on the theme who is fit to lead the country.

Election is already on today in one seat in Manipur Lok Sabha constituency, although polling there is counted as part of round-two of the five-phase election. Polling would also be completed tomorrow to the state assemblies of Andhra Pradesh and Orissa.

The first round of polling on April 16 was marked by violence in Naxal-infested states, where 19 people were killed.

Rahul Gandhi is seeking re-election from the Gandhi family pocket-borough of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh, Pawar from the newly created seat of Madha in Maharashtra, Swaraj from Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh and Paswan from Hajipur in Bihar. Fernandes is contesting as an independent from Muzaffarpur after being shut out of his party. 

Union Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath is contesting from Chhindwara constituency in Madhya Pradesh, while other prominent names include Akhilesh Prasad Singh (Purvi Champaran, Bihar), Raghuvansh Prasad Singh (Vaishali, Bihar) and Raghunath Jha (Valmikinagar, Bihar). 

A total of 2,041 candidates, including 121 women, are in the fray in this round.
 
The States to be covered are Andhra Pradesh (20 Lok Sabha seats), Assam (11), Bihar (13), Goa (2), Jammu and Kashmir (1), Karnataka (17), Madhya Pradesh (13), Maharashtra (25), Orissa (11), Tripura (2), Uttar Pradesh (17) and Jharkhand (8).

At the end of the second phase, polls would be completed to 265 seats, just seven short of the magic number that parties need to form a government in the 545-member house. Elections are held to only 543 seats, as two members are nominated from the Anglo-Indian community.