The second phase of the voting for the 18th Lok Sabha Elections is being held today, April 26, following the initial phase held on April 19, which saw a turnout of approximately 64 percent. The second phase of the voting will witness polls in 89 constituencies in 13 states and Union territories (UT).

Interestingly, all 20 Lok Sabha seats in Kerala are going to polls on Friday, while eight constituencies in Uttar Pradesh are set to vote in the second phase of the ongoing general elections.

There are a total of 1,210 candidates in the fray on Friday. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has fielded the most candidates in this phase at 74, followed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at 69 and the Congress at 68. Karnataka, with 14 seats going to polls, has the most candidates at 247, followed by Maharashtra (8 seats) at 204 and Kerala (all its 20 seats) at 189.

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With this phase, polling will conclude in Kerala, Rajasthan and Tripura. In the first phase on April 19, polling was completed in all seats of Tamil Nadu (39), Uttarakhand (5), Arunachal Pradesh (2), Meghalaya (2), Andaman and Nicobar Islands (1), Mizoram (1), Nagaland (1), Puducherry (1), Sikkim (1) and Lakshadweep (1).

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the NDA had won 56 of the 89 seats that are going to polls in phase 2 while UPA bagged 24. Six of these seats have been redrawn as part of the delimitation exercise.

Among the prominent contestants are Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi (Wayanad) and Shashi Tharoor (Thiruvananthapuram), Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar (Thiruvananthapuram), BJP’s Tejasvi Surya (Bengaluru South), Hema Malini (Mathura), Arun Govil (Meerut), Karnataka deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar’s brother DK Suresh (Bengaluru Rural) and former Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy (Mandya).

One of the most keenly-watched battles in this phase will of course be the three-way clash in Kerala’s Wayanad – being seen as a litmus test for incumbent MP Rahul Gandhi. In 2024, Rahul is facing a stiff challenge from CPI’s Annie Raja, who is the wife of party general secretary D Raja, and Kerala BJP president K Surendran.

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In 2019, Rahul cruised to victory in Wayanad with a massive margin of over 4.3 lakh votes even as he lost his bastion Amethi in UP to BJP’s Smriti Irani. The thumping victory assured him another term in the lower house.

However, the high-stakes clash featuring Congress leader and incumbent MP Shashi Tharoor and Union IT minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar is perhaps the biggest attraction of this phase. Tharoor, a three-time MP, is seeking a fourth term from the constituency and is hoping to tide over the Chandrasekhar challenge. But the Union minister, who is set to contest his first Lok Sabha election, is on a mission to unseat Tharoor and poses a formidable challenge to his 15-year reign.

After the second phase of polling, elections will conclude in 191 of the 543 seats.

The third phase of polling for 94 seats will be held on May 7. Voting for the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh phases will be held on May 13, May 20, May 25 and June 1 respectively. The counting of votes will be held on June 4.