Live updates on Lok Sabha Election 2024 voting: In the second phase held on April 26 across 88 parliamentary constituencies in 13 states and Union Territories, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged voters to cast record numbers of ballots. The Prime Minister specifically urged women and young people to vote in large numbers, stressing the fact that “high voter turnout strengthens democracy.”
Congress officials, including Priyanka Gandhi and Malikarjun Kharge, made voting appeals, emphasizing the election’s purpose to “save the constitution.”
Voting is scheduled to run from 7 am until 5 pm.
According to figures given on Friday by the Election Commission of India, Tripura remained at the top of the voter turnout tables until 5 pm (77.53%). At the same time, Uttar Pradesh had the lowest turnout (52.74%).
Up till 5 pm, the states of Manipur (76.06%), West Bengal (71.84%), Chhattisgarh (72.13%), and Assam (70.66%) also reported good turnouts.
In this phase, up to 15.88 crore voters are eligible to cast ballots, including 8.08 crore men, 7.8 crore women, and 5,929 people identifying as third gender. The voting base also includes 3.28 crore young voters aged 20–29.. 34.8 lakh first-time voters have registered to vote in this round, among other things.
On April 19, voting took place in Phase 1 for up to 109 seats. Approximately 62 per cent of voters cast ballots in the first phase. On June 4, the results of the seven stages of the Lok Sabha Election will be tallied.
Elections on April 26 will decide Lok Sabha seats: 20 in Kerala, 14 in Karnataka, 13 in Rajasthan, 8 in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, 7 in Madhya Pradesh, 5 in Assam and Bihar, 3 in West Bengal and Chhattisgarh, and 1 in Jammu and Kashmir, Manipur, and Tripura
1,210 candidates are running in Phase 2 of the Lok Sabha elections, including Congressmen Rahul Gandhi and Shashi Tharoor, the BJP’s youthful star Tejasvi Surya, Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar, actors-turned-politicians Hema Malini and Arun Govil, and Speaker Om Birla.
In this phase, authorities have assigned over 1.6 million poll workers to 167,000 voting places. In addition to placing micro-observers at every polling place, webcasting will take place in over 50% of the polls.
There will be seven phases to the overall voting process for the 543 Lok Sabha seats. On June 1, the final stage will take place. The goal of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), which is running for a record-breaking third term under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is to secure 400 seats in this election. The Congress-led opposition parties, united under the INDIA bloc banner, pose a threat to the ruling coalition.