The second phase of Lok Sabha election 2019 is currently underway across 95 parliamentary seats in 12 states and union territories on Thursday, April 18. This phase will witness polling for 95 parliamentary constituencies spread across 11 states and 1 Union Territory – Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Manipur, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, and Puducherry. The voting will begin at 7 am and continue till 6 pm in most states and union territories.
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Over 15 crore voters would be eligible to exercise their franchise in the second phase. Of these, 8.02 crore* are male, 7.76 crore* are female and 11,136 belong to the third gender.
The biggest state in the second phase – in terms of electorate size – is Tamil Nadu where polling would be held in all seats – barring Vellore. In Tamil Nadu, a total of 5.98 crore* people are eligible to cast their vote, followed by 2.63 crore in 14 seats of Karnataka and 1.85 crore in 10 seats of Maharashtra. The politically-charged state of Uttar Pradesh will see election in eight seats with 1.40 crore eligible voters.
Over 30 thousand polling stations set up in the state in this phase.
Among the political heavyweights contesting are: former Prime Minister and JDS president HD Deve Gowda, Karnataka CM HD Kumaraswamy`s son Nikhil Gowda, Sumalatha Ambareesh – wife of late former Congress leader MH Ambareesh, National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah, Union ministers Jitendra Singh, Jual Oram, Sadananda Gowda and Pon Radhakrishnan and DMK’s Dayanidhi Maran, A Raja and Kanimozhi.
Source: Zee News