Lok Sabha Election / From Rahul Gandhi to Hema Malini and Arun Govil... the credibility of these stalwarts is at stake in the second phase

Lok Sabha Election: Today the public is going to give the verdict for the second round in the battle of 2024. In the second phase today, voting is going on for 88 seats in 13 states, including all 20 seats in Kerala, 14 in Karnataka, 13 in Rajasthan, eight seats each in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, six in Madhya Pradesh, five each in Assam and Bihar, Three seats each from Chhattisgarh and West Bengal and one seat each from Jammu-Kashmir and Tripura are included. Apart from this, voting is also taking place today on Manipur outer seat. After the death of the BSP candidate in Betul seat of Madhya Pradesh, voting has been postponed to the third phase instead of the second phase.

1202 candidates are in the fray for 88 seats.

The 8 seats of UP, which gives the highest number of MPs to the country, where voting is taking place today include Meerut, Baghpat, Ghaziabad, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Bulandshahr, Amroha, Aligarh and Mathura seats. In the second phase, a total of 15.88 crore voters will press the EVM button to elect their MP, which includes 8 crore 08 lakh men, 7 crore 8 lakh women and 5929 third gender voters. At the same time, 34.8 lakh first time voters are going to cast their votes today, so 1202 candidates are in the fray for 88 seats in today's elections.

Veteran candidates of the second phase-

• Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is contesting from Wayanad.
• The fate of BJP's Rajeev Chandrashekhar and Congress's Shashi Tharoor from Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala is at stake.
• Former Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel is contesting from Rajnandgaon.
• The fate of independent Pappu Yadav will be decided today by the voters of Purnia.
• Current MP Hema Malini is in the fray for Mathura seat.
• The fate of Arun Govil from Meerut will also be captured in EVM today.
• Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla is contesting from Kota seat of Rajasthan.
• Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat is contesting from Jodhpur seat.
• The fate of Bhupesh Baghel, Navneet Rana, Tejaswi Surya will also be decided.

Talking about today's results of 2019 on 88 seats, NDA had won 59 seats while in 2019 UPA, which is today INDI Alliance, had won 23 out of 88 seats. Others got 6 seats.

Voters face heat wave

In the first phase on April 19, about 66 percent voting took place on 102 seats in 21 states, so this time the voters are challenged to go out and vote amid the scorching heat and heat wave alert. IMD has issued a heat wave alert in many parts of West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh for the next five days. In view of the heat, arrangements for tents, drinking water and fans have been made at the polling stations.