Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Stage set for round two; voting in Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka tomorrow - 10 points

High-voltage campaigning ended on Wednesday evening for the second phase of the Lok Sabha polls in 89 seats across 13 states on Friday. In the second phase, polling is scheduled 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, 7 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. 

1. Among the prominent candidates are Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar (Thiruvananthapuram), BJP's Tejasvi Surya (Karnataka), Hema Malini and Arun Govil (both Uttar Pradesh), Om Birla (Rajasthan), Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi (Wayanad) and Shashi Tharoor (Thiruvananthapuram), Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar's brother DK Suresh (Congress), former Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy (JDS). 
2. Rahul Gandhi, the sitting MP from Wayanad in Kerala, is facing off CPI's Annie Raja and BJP's K Surendran. In the 2019 election, Gandhi won by a substantial margin of more than 7 lakh votes against his closest rival, CPI's PP Suneer. Shashi Tharoor is hoping to retain the Thiruvananthapuram seat for the fourth time. He is up against BJP's Rajeev Chandrasekhar and CPI's Pannyan Raveendran.
3. Hema Malini, who has represented the Mathura constituency since 2014, is contesting against Congress' Mukesh Dhangar while Om Birla, a two-time MP from Kota, is facing Prahlad Gunjal from the Congress party. Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat is eyeing a third win from the Jodhpur seat. He is facing Congress' Karan Singh Uchiyarda.
4. Tejasvi Surya, sitting MP for Bangalore South, will face Congress' Sowmya Reddy. H D Kumaraswamy from Mandya, his brother-in-law and noted cardiologist C N Manjunath from Bangalore Rural on a BJP ticket, erstwhile Mysuru royal family scion Yaduveer Wadiyar from Mysore, also from the BJP, and Deputy CM D K Shivakumar's brother DK Suresh of Congress from Bangalore Rural, are among the prominent candidates in the fray in the first phase.  
5. Former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel is contesting from Rajnandgaon, a stronghold of the BJP for over 30 years. Baghel is contesting against BJP's Santosh Pandey, who won the 2019 Lok Sabha elections succeeding Abhishek Singh, the son of former Chief Minister Raman Singh.
6. As many as 204 candidates are in the fray for eight Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra. Voting in Lok Sabha seats of Buldhana, Akola, Amravati, Wardha, Yavatmal-Washim in western Vidarbha, Hingoli, Nanded and Parbhani in Marathwada will be held from 7 am to 6 pm. The second phase will see a face-off between Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena and the Uddhav Thackeray-headed Shiv Sena (UBT) in Buldhana, Yavatmal-Washim and Hingoli seats. 
7. Sukanta Majumdar, incumbent BJP MP from Balurghat in West Bengal is seeking re-election. He is up against Biplab Mitra of the TMC and Joydeb Siddhanta of the Revolutionary Socialist Party. Besdies Balurghat, Darjeeling and Raiganj will also go to polls. The Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat houses the strategically important Chicken’s Neck or Siliguri corridor connecting the northeastern states with mainland India. 
8. In Darjeeling, sitting BJP MP Raju Bista is contesting against party MLA from Kurseong, Bishnu Prasad Sharma, who is running as an Independent after his demand to field a "Bhumiputra" was not accepted by the BJP leadership. Bista has the backing of the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) and the Bimal Gurung faction of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM).
9. After Friday's phase, polling will be over in Kerala, Rajasthan and Tripura. In the first phase, 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). 
10. In 2019, the NDA won 56 of these 89 seats and the UPA 24. Six of these seats have been redrawn as part of the delimitation exercise. Authorities in these constituencies have been directed to ensure that no outsider remains in these areas 48 hours before polling. The third phase of polling for 94 seats in 12 states and Union territories will be held on May 7.