LS polls Phase 2: 50% turnout recorded in 93 constituencies till 3 pm

The second phase of Lok Sabha elections witnessed over 50% voter turnout as of 3 pm. Incidents of EVM glitches and bogus voting were reported in Kerala and West Bengal. Notable candidates include Shashi Tharoor, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, and HD Kumaraswamy. Despite heat conditions and boycotts in some areas, states like Tripura recorded high turnouts. Incidents of deaths and suicide were reported at polling booths. Polling was held in 88 seats across 13 states, with a turnout of 68.92% in Tripura and 43.01% in Maharashtra as of 3 pm.

A voter turnout of over 50 per cent was recorded till 3 pm in the second phase of Lok Sabha elections which was underway in 88 seats across 13 states amid complaints of EVM glitches and bogus voting in some booths in Kerala and West Bengal.

Voters in some villages of Uttar Pradesh's Mathura, Rajasthan's Banswara and Maharashtra's Parbhani boycotted polls over various issues.

Polling for the second stage of the seven-phase elections started at 7 am and will continue till 6 pm. Several states are experiencing intense heat conditions. Election officials said the highest voting percentage was recorded in Tripura which registered 68.92 per cent polling till 3 pm, while the lowest turnout was in Maharashtra at 43.01 per cent. ''Aggregate turnout at 3 pm in Phase 2 is 50.25 per cent,'' the Election Commission said in a statement.

Polling is being held in all 20 seats of Kerala, 14 of the 28 seats in Karnataka, 13 seats in Rajasthan, 8 seats each in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, 6 seats in Madhya Pradesh, 5 seats each in Assam and Bihar, 3 seats each in Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, and 1 seat each in Manipur, Tripura and Jammu and Kashmir.

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar and actor-turned-politician Arun Govil, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar's brother DK Suresh (Cong), and former Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy (JDS) are among the key candidates while BJP's Hema Malini, Om Birla and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat seeking a hat-trick of wins from their respective constituencies.

Stressing on the importance of each vote, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and party leader Rahul Gandhi issued impassioned appeals asking people to step out and exercise their franchise in the second phase of the Lok Sabha election. In Kerala, the turnout was 51.64 per cent. As the day progressed, people continued to queue up in increasing numbers outside the over 25,000 polling booths in the state to cast their vote.

The election process, held amid tight security arrangements, was primarily incident free except for instances of bogus voting and breakdowns of electronic voting machines (EVMs) being reported in some booths of the state. Such incidents resulted in delaying the polling process in the affected booths.

One person each reportedly died at Palakkad, Alappuzha and Malappuram after casting their vote and a polling agent died after collapsing at a booth in Kozhikode.

In Tripura East Lok Sabha constituency, recorded a turnout of 68.92 per cent till 3 pm. Election officials said there were some complaints from a few booths but those were ''promptly addressed''.

A jawan of the Madhya Pradesh Special Armed Force deployed on poll duty allegedly committed suicide by shooting himself with his service rifle at a government school where he was stationed in Gariaband district under the Mahasamund seat in Chhattisgarh, where a voter turnout of 63.92 per cent was recorded till 3 pm.

A polling booth at Sivni village in Balod district (Kanker seat) was decorated like a wedding 'mandap', with a display of rituals of traditional weddings. Several brides and grooms, dressed in their wedding finery, cast their votes at several polling booths. In neighbouring Madhya Pradesh, there was a turnout of 46.68 per cent till 3 pm.

An estimated 60.32 per cent of the 77,26,668 voters exercised their franchise till 3 pm in the five parliamentary constituencies of Assam. In restive Manipur, where polling is being held under high presence of security personnel, the turnout was a high 68.48 per cent.

Out of 14 segments that are going to polls in Karnataka, the highest turnout of 58.76 per cent was recorded in Dakshina Kannada, followed by Udupi-Chikmagalur at 57.49 per cent. The least was 40.10 percent in Bangalore Central. The turnout was 40.77 per cent in Bangalore South and 41.12 per cent in Bangalore North. Various restaurants in Bangalore were offering free dosas, laddu, coffee and other food items at discounted rates to customers who cast their vote. Till 3 pm, the voting percentage in Karnataka was 50.93.

A private hospital assisted 41 inpatients cast their vote with the help of city civic body Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). Green corridors were created for the ambulances across constituencies to ensure easy, hassle-free voting. A voter turnout of 43.01 per cent was recorded till 3 pm in eight constituencies in Maharashtra, while in Rajasthan, the turnout was 50.27 per cent. Incidents of confrontation between the supporters of the Congress candidate and an independent candidate were reported at a couple of places during polling in Barmer-Jaisalmer Lok Sabha constituency of Rajasthan.

Police said they were looking into the complaints besides some about fake voting from some places.

A voter turnout of 44.13 per cent was recorded till 3 pm in the eight parliamentary constituencies of Uttar Pradesh. Senior citizens dominated the early hours of voting in Noida in the Gautam Buddh Nagar constituency. Some residents' welfare associations made arrangements for electric vehicles to ferry voters to and from the polling booths.

In Bihar, the turnout was 44.24 per cent, 60.60 per cent in in West Bengal and 57.76 per cent in Jammu and Kashmir. 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). The third phase of elections for 94 seats across 12 states and Union territories will be held on May 7. Counting will be done on June 4.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)