Lok Sabha Elections 2024 Phase 2 voting: Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Shashi Tharoor, BJP’s youth icon Tejasvi Surya and Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar are among 1210 candidates contesting polls in Phase 2 of the Lok Sabha Elections 2024. These include four candidates from Outer Manipur parliamentary constituencies.
The voting for will take place on April 26. In the second phase, elections will be held for 89 Lok Sabha seats spread across 13 states and Union Territories (UTs).
The Election Commission said earlier this month that after the scrutiny of 2,633 nominations filed, 1,428 nominations were found to be valid.
“In phase 2, Kerala has a maximum of 500 nominations from 20 Parliamentary Constituencies, followed by 491 nominations from 14 PCs in Karnataka. Minimum of 14 nominations were received from one PC in Tripura…,” the commission added.
Here are key candidates and battles to look out for:
> Kerala
1. Wayanad: Rahul Gandhi Vs K Surendran Vs Annie Raja
Will Congress’ Rahul Gandhi be able to retain Wayanad in the 2024 election? Wayanad has been a stronghold of the Congress. Rahul Gandhi, who is a sitting MP from Wayanad, will fight for the same seat in the 2024 polls. He will contest against the Kerala Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief K Surendran and CPI leader Annie Raja. The contest in Wayanad has been deemed a prestige battle for Gandhi.
ALSO READ:
2. Thiruvananthapuram: Shashi Tharoor Vs Rajeev Chandrasekhar
Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram Shashi Tharoor is set to fight the battle to retain power in Kerala’s capital. He is in fray against BJP leader and Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar. The BJP’s move to field Chandrasekhar has made Thiruvananthapuram one of the keenly-watched battles. constituency for the third time.
3. Pathanamthitta: Antony Vs Antony
Former Congress leader and BJP candidate Anil Antony is in the fray against the sitting MP and UDF candidate, . Meanwhile, Anil is the son of former Union Minister and Congress veteran AK Antony.
3. Attingal: V Muraleedharan Vs Adoor Prakash
Union Minister and BJP candidate V Muraleedharan will fight against UDF’s sitting MP Adoor Prakash. Prakash had won the Attingal seat in 2019.
4. Alappuzha: KC Venugopal Vs AM Ariff Vs Shobha Surendran
KC Venugopal, the AICC organisational secretary, is up against sitting MP and senior CPI (M) leader AM Ariff and BJPs state vice-president Shobha Surendran of the BJP.
> Uttar Pradesh:
1. Mathura: Hema Malini Vs Mukesh Dhangar
is seeking a. She has been pitted against OBC leader Mukesh Dhangar of the Congress, the nominee of the opposition INDIA bloc, and Chaudhary Suresh Singh of the BSP.
2. Meerut: Arun Govil Vs Devvrat Kumar Tyagi Vs Sunita Verma
Arun Govil, who played the, is contesting from Meerut, on a BJP ticket. He is making his electoral debut against . Govil replaced three-time MP Rajendra Agarwal, who has been holding the Meerut seat since 2004.
ALSO READ:
3. Ghaziabad: Danish Ali Vs Kanwar Singh Tanwar
The. He will fight against BJP’s candidate Kanwar Singh Tanwar. The Amroha constituency is one of the most anticipated seats in Uttar Pradesh. The BSP, on the other hand, has fielded Mujahid Hussain from the seat.
Danish Ali, who won the seat on the BSP’s ticket in the 2019 elections, has been fielded on the Congress ticket this time. He joined the Congress party in the national capital on March 20.
ALSO READ:
> Karnataka
1. Bengaluru South: Tejasvi Surya Vs Soumya Reddy
has been a bastion for the BJP. The party has not been defeated from here since 1991. This year, the spotlight is on the intense competition between and Soumya Reddy, who are vying to claim the parliamentary seat for Congress.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections, BJP’s current MP Tejasvi Surya secured victory with a significant margin of 27.87 percent against Congress’ BK Hariprasad and became the youngest BJP MP in Lok Sabha. The late Ananth Kumar was elected to the Lok Sabha 6 times from this seat.
2. Mandya: HD Kumaraswamy Vs Venkataramane Gowda
of the JD(S) is facing Venkataramane Gowda of the Congress.
3. Bengaluru Rural: DK Suresh Vs HD Deve Gowda’s son-in law Manjunath
Shivakumar, is running for another term from the Bengaluru Rural seat on a Congress ticket. He is set to contest against the BJP’s C N Manjunath. Manjunath is the son-in-law of JDS supremo and former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda.
ALSO READ:
> Bihar
1. Kishanganj: Mohd Javed Vs Mujahid Alam Vs Akhtarul Iman
Kishanganj is Bihar’s only parliamentary constituency where Muslims are in majority. It is set to witness a three-cornered contest between Congress MP Mohd Javed, JD(U) runner-up of 2019 Mujahid Alam and Akhtarul Iman of the AIMIM, who had made a splash five years ago by garnering close to three lakh votes.
2. Purnea: Pappu Yadav Vs Santosh Kushwaha
Purnea is set to witness a three-cornered battle with JD(U) MP Santosh Kushwaha aiming to make a hat-trick. He will face a stiff challenge from three-time former MP Rajesh Ranjan alias , who is contesting as an Independent, and RJD’s Bima Bharti, an MLA who recently crossed over from the chief minister’s party.
3. Katihar: Tariq Anwar Vs Dulal Chandra Goswami
In Katihar, former Union minister and Congress leader Tariq Anwar will be trying to wrest the constituency from JD(U)’s Dulal Chandra Goswami, to whom he had lost by a thin margin last time.
4. Bhagalpur: Ajeet Sharma Vs Ajay Mandal
The Congress is contesting the Bhagalpur seat for the first time in over two decades. Congress MLA Ajeet Sharma, who has been springing a surprise in the last couple of assembly polls by winning the eponymous Vidhan Sabha seat, is posing a tough challenge to JD(U) MP Ajay Mandal.
> Madhya Pradesh
1. Tikamgarh: Virendra Kumar Vs Pankaj Ahirwar
Union minister Virendra Kumar is seeking a fourth straight term in Parliament from Tikamgarh. He is taking on Congress candidate Pankaj Ahirwar.
2. Khajuraho: VD Sharma Vs former IAS officer
Madhya Pradesh BJP chief VD Sharma is seeking a second term from the Khajuraho seat. He will face All India Forward Bloc (AIFB) candidate RB Prajapati, who has received support from the INDIA bloc. Prajapati is a former IAS officer.
> Maharashtra
1. Akola: BR Ambedkar’s grandson Vs Anup Dhotre Vs Abhay Patil
, who heads the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA), has fielded candidates in seven seats, including himself from Akola. His brother Anandraj Ambedkar is in the fray in Amravati as a Republican Sena nominee. In Akola, the contest is between Anup Dhotre of BJP and Abhay Patil of Congress, with Prakash Ambedkar as the third candidate.
2. Amravati: Navneet Rana Vs Balwant Wankhede
Amravati will see a fight between sitting MP Navneet Rana, now contesting as a BJP nominee, against Balwant Wankhede of Congress. Dinesh Bub is the Prahar Janshakti Party candidate. The Prahar party, which has two legislators in the assembly, is an ally of the ruling coalition.
> Rajasthan
1. Kota: Om Birla Vs Prahlad Gunjal
Speaker of the is contesting from Kota. He is facing a stiff challenge from the Congress candidate Prahlad Gunjal.
2. Jodhpur: Gajendra Singh Shekhawat Vs Karan Singh
is the candidate from Jodhpur. Shekhawat is expected to be in a neck-and-neck fight with the Congress’ Karan Singh Uchiarda.
3. Chittorgarh: CP Joshi Vs Udai Lal Anjana
BJP state president CP Joshi is contesting from Chittorgarh. The seat will witness a fierce contest as Chandra Prakash Joshi is set to fight against Congress’ Udai Lal Anjana, a former Rajasthan minister. Anjana had gained prominence in 1998 Lok Sabha polls when he defeated former Defence Minister Jaswant Singh from the seat.
> Jammu and Kashmir
1. Jammu: Jugal Kishore Sharma Vs Ramban Bhalla
A direct contest is on the cards between sitting BJP MP Jugal Kishore Sharma and INDIA bloc candidate Ramban Bhalla, the working president of the J-K Congress unit. Jagdish Raj of the BSP and advocate Ankur Sharma of the Ekam Sanatan Bharat Dal are two other prominent faces contesting the seat.
ALSO READ:
The BJP candidate, seeking his third term, defeated Bhalla by a margin of over three lakh votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. He had won the seat in 2014 as well.
As many as 22 candidates are in the fray from the constituency spread across 17 assembly segments of Jammu, Samba and Reasi districts, and one assembly constituency in Rajouri district.
