Lok Sabha polls 2024: Political mercury rising, 2nd phase of voting today

Eighty-eight Lok Sabha seats (including parts of the outer Manipur seat), across 13 states and Union Territories, are set to 

vote on Friday.

Polling will take place across Assam and Bihar (5 seats each), Chhattisgarh (3), Karnataka (14), Kerala (20), Madhya Pradesh (6), Maharashtra (8), Rajasthan (13), Tripura (1), Uttar Pradesh (8), West Bengal (3), Manipur (1), and Jammu and Kashmir (1). Prominent candidates in phase two include Congress’ Rahul Gandhi against CPI’s Annie Raja in Wayanad, Congress’ Shashi Tharoor against Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar in Thiruvananthapuram, Union minister Gajendra Shekhwat (Jodhpur), BJP’s Hema Malini (Mathura) and Arun Govil (Meerut), Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla (Kota), Congress’ Bhupesh Baghel (Rajnandgaon), BJP’s Tejasvi Surya (Bangalore North) and Independent Pappu Yadav (Purnea). The BJP and its allies won 62 of the 87 seats in 2019, and another seat was won by its current ally, the Janata Dal (Secular). Of the 52 seats that the Congress won in 2019, 18, or a third, were won from the 88 seats slated for polling on Friday.