LS polls: 11 states, 1 UT to vote in second phase tomorrow

The second phase of the Lok Sabha elections will see ninety-five parliamentary constituencies, spread over 11 states and 1 Union Territory, going to polls on Thursday.

In the second phase, the polling will be held in Assam (five seats), Bihar (five seats), Chhattisgarh (three seats), Jammu and Kashmir (two seats), Karnataka (14 seats), Maharashtra (10 seats), Manipur (one seat), Odisha (five seats), Tamil Nadu (38 seats), Uttar Pradesh (eight seats), West Bengal (three seats), and Union Territory Puducherry (one seat).

Earlier on Tuesday, on the recommendation of the Election Commission of India (ECI), President Ram Nath Kovind had cancelled voting in Tamil Nadu's Vellore Lok Sabha constituency, in the wake of seizures of large amounts of unaccounted cash from the state.

Vellore was scheduled to go to polls on Thursday along with 38 other Parliamentary constituencies in the state.

Also, polling in East Tripura constituency has been deferred from April 18 to April 23 based on inputs received that the "law and order prevailing in the constituency is not conducive to the holding of a free and fair poll.

As per the Election Commission data, Karnataka has a total electorate of 2,63,38,277 in this phase, out of which 1,33,52,234 are males, 1,29,83,284 are females and 2,759 belong to the third gender category. There are 30,410 polling stations set up in the state in this phase. There are 241 candidates, out of which 17 are women, in the fray in this phase.

Among the heavyweights, former Prime Minister and Janata Dal-Secular (JDS) president HD Deve Gowda will be contesting from Karnataka's Tumkur against G S Basvaraj of BJP.

In Mandya, Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy's son Nikhil Gowda is making his electoral debut against a formidable Independent candidate Sumalatha Ambareesh, the wife of late former Congress leader MH Ambareesh.

In Jammu and Kashmir's Srinagar, National Conference's Farooq Abdullah, who is sitting MP is contesting Irfan against Agha Mohsin of People's Democratic Party (PDP).

In the state of Uttar Pradesh, as many as 1,40,76,635 electors are on the Final Electoral Roll of eight constituencies which will go to polls on Thursday, as per data from state election commission's website. A total of 85 candidates are contesting in the second phase in the state.

The constituencies in this phase in UP are- Nagina, Amroha, Bulandshahr, Aligarh, Hathras, Mathura, Agra and Fatehpur Sikri.

In Aligarh, there is a three-corner contest between sitting MP Satish Gautam of BJP, Bijendra Singh of Congress, and Ajit Baliyan of BSP, while in Fatehpur Sikri, actor-politician and president of Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee, Raj Babbar will contest against Shree Bhagwan Sharma alias Guddu Pandit of BSP.

In Mathura, actor-politician and sitting MP Hema Malini, will contest against Narendra Singh of the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and local industrialist Mahesh Pathak of the Congress.

In Tamil Nadu's Sivaganga, former Union finance minister P Chidambaram's son Karti Chidambaram is taking on BJP national secretary H Raja in a bipolar contest where Congress is backed by DMK and BJP by AIADMK.

In Thoothukkudi, Kanimozhi Karunanidhi who is the daughter of Late DMK leader M Karunanidhi, will contest against Tamilisai Soundararajan of BJP.