The campaigning for the second phase of Lok Sabha polls in 88 seats across 13 states on April 26 wrapped up on Wednesday evening. The first phase, held last Friday for 102 seats across 21 states and Union territories, saw a turnout of approximately 65.5 per cent.
Among the prominent contestants are Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar (Thiruvananthapuram), BJP’s Tejasvi Surya (Karnataka), Hema Malini and Arun Govil (both Uttar Pradesh), Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi (Wayanad) and Shashi Tharoor (Thiruvananthapuram), Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar’s brother DK Suresh (Cong) and former Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy (JDS).
During the campaigning, Prime Minister Narendra kicked up a row on Sunday while addressing a rally in Rajasthan’s Banswara. Slamming the Congress manifesto, he alleged that the opposition party was planning to give people’s hard-earned money and valuables to “infiltrators” and “those who have more children” and referred to former prime minister Manmohan Singh’s speech in 2006 to contend he had said that Muslims have the “first claim” on the country’s resources.
The Congress was quick to react, saying that after facing “disappointment” in the first phase of Lok Sabha polls, the prime minister was resorting to “lies” and “hate speech” to divert people from the real issues. The party also urged the Election Commission to take action against Modi for his remarks, alleging they were ‘divisive’, ‘malicious’ and targeted a particular religious community.
After Friday’s phase, polling will be over in Kerala, Rajasthan and Tripura. In the first phase on April 19, polling was completed 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). In 2019, the NDA had won 56 of these 89 seats and the UPA 24. Six of these seats have been redrawn as part of the delimitation exercise.