Booth rigging, EVM-related complaints in Bengal as polling for second phase underway

Lok Sabha Election 2024 Phase 2 Voting Live Updates: Voting kicked off for 88 seats across 13 states and UTs as the second phase of general elections commenced on Friday. By the end of the day, a third of the total 543 Lok Sabha seats — including all the seats in Kerala, Rajasthan, Manipur and Tripura, and 14 of the 28 seats in Karnataka — will have completed polling. Other seats carrying out the electoral exercise include 8 each in UP and Maharashtra, 7 in MP, 5 each in Assam and Bihar, 3 in West Bengal and Chhattisgarh, and 1 in Jammu and Kashmir.

In the battleground state of Bihar, the second phase of polling on Friday will see five constituencies go to the polls, including three from the Muslim-dominated Seemanchal region.

Of the constituencies of Purnia, Kishanganj, and Katihar in Seemanchal and the nearby ones of Banka and Bhagalpur, the Janata Dal (United) currently holds four. Only Kishanganj is represented by the Congress. The fourth constituency in Seemanchal, Araria, will go to polls in the third phase on May 7. With Prime Minister Narendra Modi set to address a rally in Araria’s Forbesganj on Friday, there is a likelihood of its impact in the remaining constituencies.

As three constituencies of West Bengal vote on Friday in the second phase of Lok Sabha elections, the school jobs “scam” is back in the spotlight following the Calcutta High Court’s order on Monday cancelling the appointment of over 25,000 teachers and non-teaching staff of government schools in the state.

Among the three seats — Darjeeling, Raiganj, and Balurghat — the Trinamool Congress (TMC) has not won the last two, both bordering Bangladesh, since it came to power in the state in 2011. The BJP, on the other hand, had won all three seats in the last Lok Sabha elections.

The seven constituencies of Madhya Pradesh going to polls in the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections on April 26 – Tikamgarh, Khajuraho, Damoh, Satna, Rewa, Hoshangabad and Betul – are located in different regions of the sprawling state.

All these seats are known to be the bastions of the BJP, which has been ruling the state since 2003 barring a 14-months hiatus from December 2019 to March 2020, when the Kamal Nath-led Congress was in power. In the November 2023 Assembly elections, the BJP retained power by sweeping the state.

As the whole of Kerala votes in one phase for its 20 constituencies on Friday, the fight remains between the LDF and UDF. Their leading parties, the CPI(M) and Congress, are partners in INDIA bloc, but in the state, the contest has been bare-knuckled between the two, with the BJP emerging as a strong contestant to make it a three-way fight in some seats.

In the 2019 elections, the UDF had swept the state, winning 19 of 20 seats, a result attributed to Rahul Gandhi contesting from Wayanad. With Rahul again on the ticket, the UDF will hope to better its 2019 performance.

The discourse across the eight Lok Sabha constituencies in Maharashtra that are scheduled to vote in the second phase on April 26 is witnessing a shift, with a shuffle in traditional caste equations, the rise of the vocal rural voter and the dominance of local factors.

Perhaps the most significant of these new factors is the silent wave among Marathwada’s Maratha community, in the wake of the directions of Maratha reservation agitation leader Manoj Jarange Patil, appealing to Maratha voters not to think of helping a particular candidate win, but instead to defeat those who are opposing OBC status to Marathas.

Out of the eight constituencies going to the polls Friday, Akola, Amravati, Wardha, Buldhana and Yavatmal-Washim are in Western Vidarbha, while Hingoli, Nanded and Parbhani fall in the Marathwada region of the state.+