Second round of Lok Sabha polls: Rahul-Shashi Hema Malini’s fate will be decided today

April 26, 2024 3:57 am

Voting in the second phase of the eighteenth parliamentary elections in India will be held today. About 40 million voters will vote in 88 Lok Sabha constituencies in 13 states of the country. Rahul Gandhi, former Union Minister Shashi Tharoor, outgoing Parliament Speaker Om Birla and several heavyweight political personalities of India are in the field in the second phase of the election battle, starting from Bollywood dreamgirl Hema Malini. Veteran candidates like Annie Raja, Navneet Rana, Arun Govil and Prahlad Joshi are in the fray.

According to the National Election Commission of India, polling was announced in 89 constituencies in the second phase during the immediate announcement of the election. But polling was postponed due to the sudden death of BSP candidate Ashok Valvi in ​​Madhya Pradesh’s Betul Lok Sabha seat. Therefore, in the second phase, 88 constituencies will be polled. The first phase of voting was held in 102 centers of the country on April 19. The vote was 67 percent. However, the voter turnout in the three centers of West Bengal was around 81 percent. This time, the second phase of voting in West Bengal is being held in Darjeeling, Balurghat and Raiganj, the hilly areas of the northern part of the state. And the Election Commission is asking for 334 companies of central forces for voting in these three centres. Significantly, a record number of 750 company forces are being sought from the Union Home Ministry for the fourth phase of polling in eight centers in West Bengal.

In the second phase, the 88 constituencies of the 13 states of India that will be polled are: Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Kerala, Assam, Bihar, Manipur, Rajasthan, Tripura, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Jammu-Kashmir. Polling for the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections was held in 102 constituencies across 21 states. According to the National Election Commission of India, more than 60 to 79 percent votes were cast in the first phase of the election in the entire state. In the first phase, 77 percent votes were cast in the three centers of Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri and Alipurduaru in West Bengal. Not only that, women voted the most in Jalpaiguri, a tea plantation-dominated area of ​​West Bengal. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee claimed that all these women voted for her party.

India’s Lok Sabha elections are being held in seven phases. It will last about two months. Voting will end on June 1. The results of the polls will be announced on June 4. On that day, it will be known that the Narendra Modi government of BJP is coming back to power for the third time, or the India coalition led by Rahul Gandhi will come to power.

Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi is re-contesting from Kerala’s Wanad Lok Sabha seat in the second phase of polling. He is contested by CPI’s Annie Raja and NDA’s K Surendran. Congress’s Mukesh Dhangar is contesting from Uttar Pradesh’s Mathura Lok Sabha seat against actress-turned-Member of Parliament and BJP candidate Hema Malini. Outgoing Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla is once again BJP’s candidate from Rajasthan’s Kota seat. Congress has nominated Prahlad Gunjal against him. Congress MP Shashi Tharoor is again a candidate for the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat in Kerala. The BJP has fielded Rajeev Chandrasekhar and Leftist Panian Rabindran against him.

According to Election Commission sources, the first round of Lok Sabha polls started in West Bengal with 263 company forces. The number is increasing gradually. But the amount of forces the Election Commission is going to ask for Bengal in the fourth round of voting is shocking! According to the commission, a record number of 750 company forces are being requested from the Ministry of Home Affairs to vote in eight centers in the fourth phase.

The Election Commission deployed 263 companies of troops for the first phase of polling in West Bengal. In the second phase on Friday, the number of forces stood at 334 companies. On May 7, the commission informed about 75 more company forces coming for four centers in the third phase. However, after extensive calculations for the fourth phase on Wednesday, it is seen that the amount of force required by the office of the Chief Electoral Officer of the state to the National Election Commission in Delhi has raised eyebrows. At least 60 thousand i.e. 750 companies of central paramilitary forces should be deployed for fair and peaceful voting in the fourth phase. In the third round, where the commission is confident of conducting polls smoothly with 407 company troops, why is such a large number of troops being asked for in the fourth round?

The decision to call for this record number of forces was made after reviewing the security reports of the eight polling stations in the fourth phase and the record of various electoral disturbances in the past in discussions with the special police observer. Voting will be held in eight constituencies in four districts of South Bengal in the fourth phase on May 13. These are Krishnanagar, Ranaghat, Bolpur, Birbhum, Burdwan East, Burdwan-Durgapur, Asansol and Baharampur. Among them, Birbhum and Baharampur have seen riots each time during polls in the past. As such, there are many sensitive booths in this episode.