95 constituencies to go to polls in 2nd phase

Over 15.52 crore voters are expected to cast their votes in about 1.78 lakh polling stations as 95 constituencies are set to go to polls in the second phase of polling for the Lok Sabha elections on Thursday.

Altogether 1596 voters are in the fray to enter the Lok Sabha to represent the 95 constituencies spread over 11 States and one Union Territory.

The constituencies going to polls in the second phase include 14 of the total 28 parliamentary constituencies in Karnataka. The polling for the remaining seats will take place in the third phase on April 23.

The Election Commission (EC) was to hold polling in altogether 97 constituencies in the second phase. But President Ram Nath Kovind on Tuesday rescinded the election in Vellore in Tamil Nadu after the EC recommended for the same in the wake of recovery of a huge amount of money in the Lok Sabha constituency.

The 38 of the 39 parliamentary seats in Tamil Nadu are going to polls on Thursday.

The poll-panel also deferred polling for the East Tripura parliamentary seat from Thursday to April 23, as it concluded that the prevailing law and order situation in the constituency was not conducive. The north-eastern state has two Lok Sabha constituency and the other – West Tripura – went to the polls in the first phase on April 11.

Five constituencies in Assam, three in Chhattisgarh, two in Jammu and Kashmir, 10 in Maharashtra, one in Manipur and eight in Uttar Pradesh will go to polls in the second phase. Besides, polling will also be held in five constituencies each in Bihar and Odisha, three in West Bengal and one in Union Territory of Puducherry on Thursday.

Thirty-five assembly constituencies in Odisha will also go to polls on Thursday. The Lok Sabha polls and assembly elections are being held together in the State. The polling for the bye-elections to 18 assembly constituencies in Tamil Nadu will also be held along with that for the Lok Sabha polls on Thursday.

In the second phase, all eyes would be in Tamil Nadu as well as in Uttar Pradesh, where eight seats in the western region of the state would go to polls. The polls in Tamil Nadu are crucial for the AIADMK, which rules the state, as DMK-led alliance is said to have an upper hand. The state would also see bypolls to over a dozen Assembly seats and its result could have an impact on the government's stability.

Karnataka is witnessing the first edition of the polling in 14 out of the 28 seats where prominent candidates like former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, his grandsons Nikhil Kumaraswamy (Mandya) and Prajwal Revanna (Hassan), Union Minister Sadananda Gowda (Bengaluru-North), former Union Minister and senior Congress leader K H Muniyappa (Kolar) and senior Congress leader B K Hariprasad (Bengaluru South) battling it out.