India’s parliamentary elections roll into the second of seven phases on April 26. The first phase covering 102 seats across 21 states saw the voter turnout of more than 60 percent.
Before first phase polls closed, the Election Commission said voter turnout ranged from 40 percent in the sprawling northern state of Bihar to 68 percent in the small northeastern state of Tripura. In the multiphase 2019 polls, the average turnout was 67 percent.
Polling was held 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)
Opinion polls have suggested the BJP will easily win a majority, even though voters worry about unemployment, inflation and rural distress in the world’s most populous country and fastest growing major economy.
The second phase of voting for the 18th Lok Sabha elections will see people in 89 constituencies across 13 states, including Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Rajasthan, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, and Jammu & Kashmir, elect their MPs.
Kerala, which will vote in a single phase on April 26 unlike states like Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal with multiple poll dates, is definitely an interesting state to watch out. The BJP has never opened an account in Kerala, a state dominated by Congress and Left parties.
Prominent opposition leader Rahul Gandhi will face-off against left-wing candidate Annie Raja of the Communist Party of India, as he fights to hold onto the constituency that elected him in 2019. Both Gandhi’s Congress and the communists are part of the national opposition INDIA alliance but are rivals in Kerala.
BJP’s Arun Govil has made Meerut in Uttar Pradesh an interesting constituency. The saffron party replaced its multiple-time MP Rajendra Agarwal to pitch the actor famous for portraying Lord Rama in Ramayan TV series. Govil is contesting against BSP’s Devvrat Kumar Tyagi and SP’s Sunita Verma.
In Mathura, veteran actor Hema Malini is contesting to retain the seat she has been representing since 2014. She is contesting against Congress’s Mukesh Dhangar
In Rajasthan, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla is fighting to retain his Kota Bundi seat for the third consecutive time. Also in the fray is Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat in Jodhpur and former chief minister Ashok Gehlot’s son Vaibhav Gehlot in Jalore.
Other faces to watch out for are BJP’s Tejasvi Surya, the sitting MP in Bangalore South, against Congress’ Sowmya Reddy and Congress’ Shashi Tharoor in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.
Holding the Thiruvananthapuram seat since 2009, Tharoor is pitted against Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar and CPI’s Pannyan Raveendran in these elections.
India’s general elections for 543 seats in the lower house of parliament, or Lok Sabha, kicked off on April 19. The results of the world’s largest-ever democratic exercise are set to be announced on June 4.
Apart from numerous regional and national hopefuls, the two main alliances are the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and a coalition of 28 parties called the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), led by the main opposition Indian National Congress, welded by the aim of unseating the BJP.
