88 seats, 13 states & UTs, 1202 candidates: Stage set for Lok Sabha battle round 2

New Delhi: Around 15.88 crore voters in 88 seats will be eligible to cast their votes in the second phase of Lok Sabha elections on Friday to seal the electoral fate of 1,202 candidates, including Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Speaker Om Birla, in 13 states and union territories.

Of the 1,202 candidates in the fray, 1,098 are men, 102 are women and two are from the third gender category.

More than 16 lakh polling officials have been deployed across 1.67 lakh polling stations. Voters include 8.08 crore men, 7.8 crore women and 5,929 third gender electors. As many as 34.8 lakh first-time voters are registered to cast their votes. There are 3.28 crore young voters in the age group of 20-29 years.

Initially, 89 seats were to go to polls but voting in Madhya Pradesh’s Betul was shifted to phase 3 on May 7 following the death of BSP candidate Ashok Balawi, days after filing of nominations. In the first phase, 102 seats had gone to polls.

The Election Commission has its fingers crossed over polling percentage as the first phase is learnt to have not gone the way it wanted owing to oppressive weather conditions. The EC, which has initially pegged the polling percentage for first phase at 62.37% as against 69.4% in the first phase five years ago, has not provided the final aggregate polling percentage for April 19 phase.

To beat the heat and bring more voters to the polling booths, the EC said it has extended voting time in four Bihar constituencies besides offering facilities like water, shed, toilets and ramps. 

With the polling in Wayanad where Rahul is contesting ending in this phase, all eyes will now be on Amethi and Rae Bareli, the Gandhi family bastions, amid questions on whether the former Congress president fights from Uttar Pradesh again.

Congress is likely to make it clear whether Rahul will contest from Amethi, which he lost last time, again after Wayanad polls. Another seat that will be under watch will be Rae Bareli which Sonia Gandhi has vacated and it is to be seen whether Priyanka Gandhi Vadra fights from the seat.

In phase 2, Kerala has a maximum of 500 nominations from 20 seats, followed by 491 nominations from 14 seats in Karnataka. Minimum of 14 nominations were received from one seat in Tripura. Nanded Parliamentary constituency in Maharashtra received a maximum of 92 nominations.

Polling stations in all States/UTs except Bihar and Kerala have less than 1000 average electors per polling station. In Bihar, it is 1,008 and in Kerala it is 1,102 electors per polling station.