Lucknow | An average voter turnout of over 11 per cent was recorded in the first two hours of polling in eight parliamentary constituencies of Uttar Pradesh on Friday.
The polling began at 7 am and will continue till 6 pm.
Election Commission officials said 14.32 per cent votes were polled in Amroha, 12.28 per cent in Meerut, 11 per cent in Baghpat, 10.67 per cent in Ghaziabad, 11.57 in Gautam Budhnagar, 11.99 in Bulandshahr, 12.20 per cent in Aligarh and 10.09 in Meerut till 9 am.
Voting is taking place in Amroha, Meerut, Baghpat, Ghaziabad, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Bulandshahr, Aligarh and Mathura constituencies.
Among the 91 candidates in the fray in this phase are actor-turned-politicians Hema Malini, seeking a third term from Mathura on a BJP ticket, and actor Arun Govil, who portrayed the role of Lord Ram in television serial "Ramayan".
The ruling BJP has fielded Govil from his native place Meerut, Atul Garg from Ghaziabad and Mahesh Sharma from Gautam Buddh Nagar. Danish Ali of the Congress is contesting the polls from Amroha.
There are more than 1.67 crore voters, 7,797 polling stations and 17,704 polling booths in these eight Lok Sabha constituencies.
Kishanganj/Purnea/Katihar (Bihar) | Around 9.84 per cent of over 93 lakh voters in five Lok Sabha constituencies of Bihar exercised their franchise till 9 am on Friday, an official said.
Polling started at 7 am in Kishanganj, Katihar, Purnia, Bhagalpur and Banka and will continue till 6 pm, he said.
The electors, including 45.15 lakh women and 306 belonging to the third gender, will decide the fate of 50 nominees.
Over 12.01 per cent of the electorate voted in Katihar, 10.65 per cent in Banka, 9.36 per cent in Purnea, 8.92 per cent in Bhagalpur and 8.32 per cent in Kishanganj, till 9 am, the official said.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's JD(U), a BJP ally, is contesting all the five seats, including Kishanganj, which it seeks to wrest from the Congress, while its MPs in the remaining four constituencies are trying to retain their turf.
More than 150 companies of paramilitary forces are assisting the local police in ensuring free and fair polls, the official said.
The second phase of Lok Sabha elections is taking place at a time when the state is reeling under an intense heat wave, with the mercury shooting past the 40-degrees Celsius mark in most parts.
Arrangements for tents and drinking water have been made at the polling centres, he added.
Bhopal | About 13.82 per cent of voters cast their ballots till 9 am in six Lok Sabha constituencies in Madhya Pradesh in the second phase of general elections on Friday, an official said.
The polling began at 7 am and is going on peacefully in all the six Lok Sabha seats, the state's Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Anupam Rajan told PTI.
Till 9 am, Damoh recorded a voter turnout of 13.34 per cent, Hoshangabad 15.95, Khajuraho 13.44, Rewa 13.27, Satna 13.59 and Tikamgarh 13.36, the official said.
The early voters include Union minister Prahlad Patel in Damoh Lok Sabha seat, which he represented in 2019.
Voting in the six seats will end at 6 pm, the official said.
A total of 12,828 polling booths, including 1,136 run by women, have been set up for 1,1162,460 eligible voters of whom 58,32,333 are men, 53,29,972 women and 155 from the third-gender category, the official said.
The maximum number of candidates – 19 – are in the fray in Satna, while the lowest are in Tikamgarh where seven are contesting. There are 2,865 sensitive polling booths in the six constituencies that are spread over 47 assembly segments in the state.
Facilities like water, medicines and shelter have been provided at all the polling booths, the official said.
Union minister Virendra Kumar is seeking a fourth straight term from Tikamgarh. He is taking on Congress candidate Pankaj Ahirwar.
State BJP chief V D Sharma is seeking a second term from the Khajuraho seat. The opposition INDIA bloc is supporting former IAS officer R B Prajapati of All India Forward Bloc against Sharma after Samajwadi Party candidate Meera Yadav's nomination was rejected.
Altogether, 223 flying squad teams and 240 static surveillance teams are keeping a close watch on the polling, the official said.
In the 2014 general elections, a voter turnout of 61.57 per cent was recorded in MP, which increased by 10 per cent to 71.16 per cent in 2019.
The third and fourth phases of Lok Sabha polls will be held on May 7 and 13.
In 2019, the BJP won in 28 of the 29 Lok Sabha constituencies in Madhya Pradesh, while the Congress could only bag the Chhindwara seat.
Jaipur | Nearly 12 percent voter turnout was recorded in the first two hours of polling across 13 Lok Sabha seats and one assembly constituency in Rajasthan on Friday.
The voting percentage in the first two hours in the second phase of the Lok Sabha polls is slightly above that of the first phase. The polling percentage in 12 Lok Sabha seats, which went to polls on April 19, by this time was 10.67 per cent.
Voting was underway in Barmer-Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Jalore, Chittorgarh, Banswara, Kota-Bundi, Tonk-Sawai Madhopur, Ajmer, Pali, Udaipur, Rajsamand, Kota and Jhalawar-Baran, along with the Bagidora Assembly constituency where a bypoll is underway.
Bagidora assembly seat saw a voting percentage of 13 percent till 9 am.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, who is contesting from Kota-Bundi, BJP state president CP Joshi, BJP candidate from Chittorgarh, Union minister and BJP candidate from Jodhpur Gajendra Singh Shekhawat cast their votes in the initial hours.
Assembly speaker Vasudev Devnani cast his vote in Ajmer while former chief ministers Vasundhara Raje and Ashok Gehlot exercised their franchise in Jhalawar and Jodhpur respectively.
Around 2.8 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in the second phase of the polls. This is the final phase of polling in Rajasthan.
Voting for 12 seats in the desert state was held in the first phase on April 19.
The Bagidora Assembly seat in Banswara fell vacant after Congress MLA Mahendrajeet Singh Malviya switched over to the BJP. Malviya is contesting the Lok Sabha election from Banswara as a BJP candidate.
Raipur | Voting for three Lok Sabha constituencies, having Naxalite presence, in Chhattisgarh in the second phase of general elections began on Friday, with 15.42 per cent of the electorate exercising their franchise in the first two hours.
“Polling in Kanker, Rajnandgaon and Mahasamund Lok Sabha constituencies started at 7 am. Till 9 am, 15.42 per cent polling has been registered,” a poll official said.
“Polling is underway smoothly and peacefully,” he added.
Long queues of voters are being witnessed in several polling booths of three seats.
Among the early voters, Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Sharma and former MP Abhishek Singh cast their votes in Kawardha town (Rajnandgaon seat), BJP candidate Rupkumari Chaudhary in Harratar village in Mahasamund seat and BJP nominee Bhojraj Nag and his wife in Antagarh in Kanker.
The polling comes days after 29 Naxalites were killed in an encounter with security personnel in Kanker district on April 16.
Of the eight assembly segments in the Kanker constituency, polling began in Antagarh, Bhanupratappur, Keshkal and Kanker assembly segments at 7 am and will end at 3 pm, the official said.
In four other assembly segments, Sihawa, Sanjari-Balod, Daundilohara and Gunderdehi, polling began at 7 am and will conclude at 6 pm.
In the Rajnandgaon constituency, except the Manpur-Mohla assembly segment, where polling is being held from 7 am to 3 pm, voting in all other seven assembly segments began at 7 am and will go on till 6 pm.
The polling time in the Mahasamund constituency is 7 am to 6 pm, except in nine sensitive booths under the Bindranawagarh assembly segment, where it is being held from 7 am to 3 pm.
A security blanket comprising 222 state and paramilitary personnel was thrown across the three seats to ensure peaceful polling.
In the Kanker seat, extra vigil is being maintained by security forces given the threat from Naxalites, the official said.
Altogether 41 candidates, including former chief minister Bhupesh Baghel and former state home minister Tamradhwaj Sahu, are in the fray in a direct fight between the ruling BJP and opposition Congress.
Of the 41 candidates, 15 are in Rajnandgaon, 17 in Mahasamund and 9 in Kanker Lok Sabha seat. There are 52,84,938 eligible voters, including 26,05,350 men, 26,79,528 women and 60 members of the third gender in the three seats.
Altogether 6,567 polling booths have been set up in the constituencies and of them, 23 polling booths have been categorised as vulnerable, 458 have been marked as critical, the official said.
The high-profile Rajnandgaon seat is seeing a contest between BJP MP Santosh Pandey and Congress' Bhupesh Baghel, former chief minister and incumbent MLA.
The ruling BJP has dropped its sitting MPs in Mahasamund and Kanker seats and fielded former MLAs Rupkumari Chaudhary and Bhojraj Nag there respectively.
Opposition Congress has fielded former state home minister Tamradhwaj Sahu in Mahasamund and senior leader Biresh Thakur in Kanker seat. Thakur lost the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in Kanker.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, BJP won 9 seats while Congress bagged two seats in Chhattisgarh.
Bengaluru | An estimated 9.21 per cent turnout was reported during the first two hours since voting began for the first phase of Lok Sabha polls in 14 constituencies in Karnataka on Friday.
Long queues were seen at polling booths, as people, especially senior citizens and morning walkers came out to vote during the early hours since the voting began at 7 am.
According to election officials, voter turnout till 9 am was about 9.21 per cent.
Out of 14 segments that are going to polls today, highest turnout of 14.33 per cent was recorded in Dakshina Kannada, followed by Udupi-Chikmagalur 12.82 per cent, and least 7.70 per cent in Chamarajanagar and Mandya.
In the three constituencies in Bengaluru city the turnout was 9.08 percent in Bangalore South, 8.64 percent in Bangalore North and 8.14 percent in Bangalore South.
"We are seeing people coming out to vote in the morning itself, mostly to avoid summer heat in the later part of the day," a poll official at a voting centre in Bangalore South segment said.
In the first phase, the Congress is contesting in all 14 seats, BJP has fielded nominees in 11 and its alliance partner JD(S), which joined the National Democratic Alliance in (NDA) in September last year, in three -- Hassan, Mandya and Kolar.
Besides the three, the segments where elections are being held on Friday are: Udupi-Chikmagalur, Dakshina Kannada, Chitradurga, Tumkur, Mysore, Chamarajanagar, Bangalore Rural, Bangalore North, Bangalore Central, Bangalore South and Chikkballapur.
IT industry veteran N R Narayana Murthy, his wife and nominated member of Rajya Sabha Sudha Murty, cricketing legend Rahul Dravid, Union Finance Minister and Rajya Sabha member Nirmala Sitharaman, and Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Kumar Meena were among the early voters in Bengaluru city.
Film actors Prakash Raj, Ganesh, Siddalinga Mahaswami of the Siddaganga Math, were among the other prominent personalities who cast their votes at respective polling booths.
The erstwhile Mysuru royal family scion and BJP candidate from Mysore Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar, along with wife Trishika Kumari Devi and "Rajmata" Pramoda Devi Wadiyar voted in Mysuru.
Home Minister G Parameshwara, Chikkballapur BJP candidate K Sudhakar, party's Tumkur candidate V Somanna also cast their votes.
A bride exercised her franchise in Chikkamagaluru district, before reaching the wedding venue in the morning.
