National News Politics

LS Polls 2024 Phase 2: 39% Turnout Till 1 PM

Polling for the second phase is being held for 88 seats in 13 states: 20 seats in Kerala, 14 seats in Karnataka, 13 in Rajasthan, eight each in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, seven in Madhya Pradesh, five each in Assam and Bihar, three each in Bengal and Chhattisgarh, and one each in Jammu and Kashmir, Manipur, and Tripura. An average turnout of 39.1 percent was recorded until 1p.m., six hours after voting began.

Assam 46.31
Bihar 33.80
Chhattisgarh 53.09
Jammu & Kashmir 42.88
Karnataka 38.23
Kerala 39.26
Madhya Pradesh 38.96
Maharashtra 31.77
Manipur 54.26
Rajasthan 40.39
Tripura 54.47
Uttar Pradesh 35.73
West Bengal 47.29

On Friday, the Supreme Court said no to the petitions asking for a full check of votes cast using Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) along with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips. Two judges, Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Dipankar Datta, made this decision. They also said no to the idea of returning to ballot papers for voting in elections.

Key candidates for this round include the Congress’s Rahul Gandhi, KC Venugopal, Bhupesh Baghel. and Ashok Gehlot’s son Vaibhav Gehlot, BJP’s Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar — up against Congress’s Shashi Tharoor in Thiruvananthapuram; actors Hema Malini, and Arun Govil from 1980s iconic serial Ramayan, senior BJP leader Tejasvi Surya and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla.

Earlier, 89 constituencies were expected to vote in this phase. But polling in Betul, Madhya Pradesh, was rescheduled after the death of a candidate from Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party. Betul will now vote in the third phase, due on May 7.

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