Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Shashi Tharoor, and actor-turned-politician Arun Govil are among the key candidates in the fray for the second phase of the Lok Sabha polls, with BJP’s Hema Malini, Om Birla and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat looking for a hat trick of victories from their respective constituencies, news agency PTI reported.
Staged in seven stages, the first phase of elections held last Friday for 102 seats in 21 states and Union Territories recorded a voter turnout of around 65.5 per cent.
Lok Sabha Elections 2024 Phase 2: Rahul Gandhi seeks re-election
In the second phase of Lok Sabha polls on Friday, elections are scheduled in all 20 seats in Kerala, 14 of 28 seats in Karnataka, 13 seats in Rajasthan, eight seats in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, seven in Madhya Pradesh, five in each. in Assam and Bihar, three seats in Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, and one seat in Manipur, Tripura and Jammu and Kashmir.
Rahul Gandhi is the sitting MP from Wayanad in Kerala and is seeking re-election. He is pitted against CPI’s Annie Raja and BJP’s K Surendran. In the 2019 elections, Gandhi emerged victorious by a substantial margin of over 7 lakh votes against his closest rival, CPI’s PP Suneer.
Congress leader and former Union minister Shashi Tharoor hopes to retain the Thiruvananthapuram seat for the fourth time. He is pitted against Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar of the BJP and Pannyan Raveendran of the CPI.
Malini, who has represented Mathura constituency since 2014, is contesting against Mukesh Dhangar of the Congress, while Om Birla, a two-time MP from Kota, is pitted against Prahlad Gunjal of the Congress Party.
Lok Sabha elections 2024 phase 2: Union minister Shekhawat eyes third victory
Union Minister Shekhawat is hoping for a third victory from the Jodhpur seat, while Congress candidate Karan Singh Uchiyarda would seek to put a damper on the BJP candidate.
Tejasvi Surya, sitting MP from Bengaluru South and national president of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), will take on Congress Sowmya Reddy.
Former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister and Congress leader Bhupesh Baghel is contesting from Rajnandgaon, a BJP stronghold for over 30 years.
Baghel faces Santosh Pandey of the BJP, who won the 2019 Lok Sabha elections succeeding Abhishek Singh, son of former chief minister Raman Singh, also of the BJP.
Replacing three-time MP Rajendra Agarwal, who has held the Meerut seat since 2004, Arun Govil, famous for playing the character of Lord Ram in the television series Ramayan, is making his electoral debut against Devvrat Kumar Tyagi of the BSP and the SP. . Sunita Verma.
Lok Sabha Elections 2024 Phase 2: BJP leader Virendra Kumar Khatik eyes fourth victory
In Madhya Pradesh, BJP leader Virendra Kumar Khatik is hoping for a fourth victory against Tikamgarh. The Congress has fielded a new face, Pankaj Ahirwar, from the constituency. In 2019, Khatik defeated Kiran Ahirwar of Congress by a margin of over 3.48 lakh votes.
The contest for the Alappuzha seat in Kerala has become a prestige battle for the Congress with the return of All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary KC Venugopal to the Lok Sabha election fray after 2014, as the party seeks to snatch the only seat it has. lost to the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) in its landslide 19-1 victory in Kerala in the 2019 elections.
Venugopal has not lost any major election in his career. He won the Alappuzha Assembly seat three times in a row in 1996, 2001 and 2006 and was elected to the Lok Sabha from Alappuzha in 2009 and 2014.
In 2019, he did not run after the party elevated him to the position of AICC general secretary.
Lok Sabha Elections 2024 Phase 2: Actor-turned-politician Suresh Gopi in the fray
Actor-turned-politician Suresh Gopi is also in the fray from Thrissur against K Muraleedharan of the Congress and VS Sunil Kumar of the CPI(M).
Sukanta Majumdar, the current BJP MP from Balurghat in West Bengal, is seeking re-election. He is pitted against Biplab Mitra of the Trinamool Congress and Joydeb Siddhanta of the Revolutionary Socialist Party.
(With input from PTI)