• Madhya Pradesh: About 28.15 per cent of voters cast their ballots till 11 am in six Lok Sabha constituencies in Madhya Pradesh in the second phase of general elections. 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 11 am, Damoh recorded a voter turnout of 26.84 per cent, Hoshangabad 32.40, Khajuraho 28.14, Rewa 24.46, Satna 30.32 and Tikamgarh 26.96. The early voters include Union minister Prahlad Patel in Damoh Lok Sabha seat, which he represented in 2019, and Union minister Virendra Kumar and his wife in Tikamgarh seat. Kumar has represented the Tikamgarh seat three times and is seeking a fourth term.
• Tripura: The Tripura East Lok Sabha constituency recorded a voter turnout of 36.79 per cent till 11 am. Long queues were seen outside polling stations since morning, as people turned up early to beat the heat, Additional Chief Electoral Officer S Bandopadhyay said. "The polling has largely remained peaceful, with no untoward incident reported till 11 am. The average voting stands at 36.79 per cent,” he said. Taking to social media, Chief Minister Manik Saha urged voters to exercise their democratic right in record numbers.
  

• Assam: An estimated 27.43 per cent of 77,26,668 voters exercised their franchise till 11 am in the five parliamentary constituencies of Assam, where polling is underway in the second phase. The highest polling of 30.82 per cent was recorded in Diphu (ST), followed by 29.99 per cent in Karimganj, 28.81 per cent at Darrang-Udalguri, 25.29 per cent in Nagaon and the lowest 23.20 per cent in Silchar.

• Uttar Pradesh: A voter turnout of 24.31 per cent was recorded in the first four hours of polling in the eight parliamentary constituencies of Uttar Pradesh in phase two of the Lok Sabha elections. Election Commission (EC) officials said 28.45 per cent votes were polled in Amroha, 25.67 per cent in Meerut, 22.74 per cent in Baghpat, 23.19 per cent in Ghaziabad, 24.26 in Gautam Buddh Nagar, 23.43 in Bulandshahr, 24.42 per cent in Aligarh and 23.07 in Mathura till 11 am. There are more than 1.67 crore voters, 7,797 polling stations and 17,704 polling booths in these eight Lok Sabha constituencies. Among the 91 candidates in the fray in this phase are actor-turned-politician 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".

• Kerala: Brisk polling was seen in the 20 Lok Sabha seats during the initial few hours of voting with Kerala registering a turnout of 19.06 per cent by 10.20 am. The election process, held amidst tight security arrangements, was primarily incident free except for electronic voting machine (EVM) breakdowns reported in some booths of the state. The EVM breakdowns resulted in delaying the polling process in those booths, leading to several voters returning to their homes, according to Congress leader Anto Antony, who is contesting from Pathanamthitta LS seat, and his party colleague Chandy Oommen. The voter turnout was 12.26 per cent at 9.20 am and rose to 16 per cent and then 19.06 per cent at 10 am and 10.20 am, respectively. The highest turnout till 10.20 am was recorded at Attingal LS constituency at 20.55 per cent.

• Bihar: Around 9.84 per cent of over 93 lakh voters in five Lok Sabha constituencies of Bihar exercised their franchise till 9 am. Polling started at 7 am in Kishanganj, Katihar, Purnia, Bhagalpur and Banka and will continue till 6 pm. 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.

• Manipur: A voter turnout of 15.49 per cent was recorded till 9 am on Friday as polling was underway in the remaining parts of the Outer Manipur Lok Sabha constituency amid tight security. Voting was underway at 857 polling stations, spanning 13 assembly segments in eight districts. In the first two hours, the Tipaimukh assembly segment in the Pherzawl district recorded the highest turnout at 19.80 per cent, while the Jiribam assembly segment recorded the lowest at 8.62 per cent.

• Rajasthan: 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. 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.

• Chhattisgarh: 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.

• Karnataka: 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. 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. 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.

• Urging everyone in constituencies voting today, in the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections, to participate in record numbers: Prime Minister Narendra Modi

• Karnataka: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, software industry icon N R Narayana Murthy, his wife and Rajya Sabha member Sudha Murty, former cricketer Rahul Dravid and actor Prakash Raj among early voters in Bengaluru

Voters in 88 constituencies across 13 states in the country are at the polling booths since Friday morning, amidst a heat wave warning from the Met department in several states.

The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) on Thursday issued a red warning for West Bengal and Odisha and an orange alert for Bihar and parts Karnataka. Similar warnings were issued for Uttar Pradesh where elections will be held in eight seats. In Kerala, where elections will be held in all the 20 seats, the IMD has predicted “high humidity”, along with Tripura and Assam.

TTO Graphics.

An orange warning issued by the Met department indicates to be prepared, while a red warning means to take action.

The rapidly worsening weather condition could have an impact on the overall voter turnout at the end of the day. The voter turnout in the first phase of elections held on April 19 witnessed a voter turnout of around 66.1 per cent, compared to 69.9 per cent in the 2019 general elections.

It has been suggested that the drop in the voter turnout could be because of the heat wave conditions prevailing in the country. Several states that went to polls in the first phase, like West Bengal, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, recorded maximum temperatures above 42 per cent.

Another factor possible for the low turnout is a widespread assumption that the outcome of the elections is pre-decided and heavily tilted in favour of the BJP. In states like Nagaland and Manipur there were local issues that led to poll boycotts and subsequently low turnouts.

TTO Graphics.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, seeking re-election from Kerala’s Wayanad, is in a face-off with the CPI’s Annie Raja, while his party colleague, Shashi Tharoor, is contesting for a fourth-straight term from Thiruvananthapuram.

Tharoor is pitted against the Union minister and BJP leader Rajeev Chandrasekhar and CPI’s Pannyan Raveendran.

Also in the contest from Kerala is AICC general secretary K. C. Venugopal, who is making a return to Alappuzha after representing it twice earlier, in 2009 and 2014. In 2019, Venugopal did not contest and Alappuzha was the only seat that the CPM could win from Kerala.

A win for Venugopal, who has never lost any major election, this time would not make any dent in the Congress’ actual strength in both the houses as he would then have to give up his Rajya Sabha seat from Rajasthan where the BJP is in power now.

Elections are also being held in 14 of the 28 seats in Karnataka, 13 in Rajasthan, eight each in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, six in Madhya Pradesh (elections to the seventh constituency Betul has been postponed to the third phase following the death of a candidate), five each in Assam and Bihar, three seats each in Chhattisgarh and West Bengal and one each in Manipur, Tripura and Jammu and Kashmir.

Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are the only states where elections will be held in all the seven phases.

Former actor and BJP MP from Uttar Pradesh’s Mathura Hema Malini, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla from Kota, former Chhattisgarh chief minister from the Congress Bhupesh Baghel, the BJP’s Bangalore South MP Tejasvi Surya, actor Arun Govil fielded by the BJP from Meerut are some of the other key candidates in the fray.

The second phase of campaigning was marked by a vitriolic attack mounted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the main rival Congress by targeting the largest minority community in the country.

While campaigning in Rajasthan’s Banswara on Sunday last, Modi had said: “Earlier, when they (Congress) were in power, they had said Muslims have the first right to the wealth of the nation. This means they will distribute this wealth to those who have more children, to infiltrators. Should your hard earned money be given to infiltrators? Do you agree to this?”

He went on to add: “Congress’ manifesto says they will take stock of the gold mothers and daughters have, and will distribute that wealth. Manmohan Singh’s government had said Muslims have the first right to wealth. Brothers and sisters, this Urban Naxal thinking will not spare even the mangal sutras of my mothers and sisters.”

Two days later, speaking at an election rally in Tonk-Sawai Madhopur, also in Rajasthan, Modi said: “The truth is that when Congress and INDI alliance was in power, these people broke into the reservation of Dalits and the backward for vote bank politics and wanted to give reservation to their specific people separately. While the Constitution is absolutely against it.”

The Election Commission, which had come under fire for not taking cognizance of the complaints filed against Modi for alleged violation of the model code of conduct, issued a notice to the BJP on Thursday seeking its response to the complaints lodged by the Congress, the CPM and the CPI (ML) on the comments made in Banswara.