Phase Two to Witness High-Profile Battles Across 13 States and Union Territories
The second phase of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections will see a fierce battle for 88 seats across 13 states and Union Territories. Polling will take place in Assam and Bihar (5 seats each), Chhattisgarh (3), Karnataka (14), Kerala (20), Madhya Pradesh (6), Maharashtra (8), Rajasthan (13), Tripura (1), Uttar Pradesh (8), West Bengal (3), Manipur (1), and Jammu and Kashmir (1).
This phase will witness several high-profile contests, including Congress leader Rahul Gandhi taking on CPI's Annie Raja in Wayanad, Congress' Shashi Tharoor facing off against Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar in Thiruvananthapuram, and Union Minister Gajendra Shekhawat contesting from Jodhpur. Other prominent candidates include BJP's Hema Malini (Mathura) and Arun Govil (Meerut), Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla (Kota), Congress' Bhupesh Baghel (Rajnandgaon), BJP's Tejasvi Surya (Bangalore North), and Independent Pappu Yadav (Purnea).
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP and its allies won 62 of the 87 seats in these regions. One additional seat was won by the Janata Dal (Secular), which is currently an ally of the BJP. Notably, 18 out of the 52 seats that the Congress won in 2019 were from the 88 constituencies going to polls in this phase. This makes the second phase of the 2024 elections crucial for both the BJP and the Congress.