The political battleground heats up in Kerala and Karnataka as key figures from major parties, including Rahul Gandhi, Shashi Tharoor, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, V Muraleedharan, KC Venugopal, Annie Raja, Tejasvi Surya, DK Suresh, K Surendran, and HD Kumaraswamy, vie for victory in the Lok Sabha Elections phase 2 on April 26.
Kerala will witness the decision-making for 194 candidates, with polling across all 20 parliamentary constituencies on Friday, including Kasaragod, Kannur, Vatakara, Wayanad, Kozhikode, Malappuram, Ponnani, Palakkad, Alathur, Thrissur, Chalakudy, Ernakulam, Idukki, Kottayam, Alappuzha, Mavelikkara, Pathanamthitta, Kollam, Attingal, and Thiruvananthapuram.
Karnataka, which holds 28 seats in the 543-member Parliament, will undergo polling in two phases, with 14 seats up for voting tomorrow. These include Udupi Chikamagalur, Hassan, Dakshina Kannada, Chitradurga, Tumkur, Mandya, Mysore, Chamarajanagar, Bangalore Rural, Bangalore North, Bangalore Central, Bangalore South, Chikballapur, and Kolar. Additionally, a bypoll will be conducted in the Surpur (Shorapur) constituency situated in Yadgir district.
Several opposition parties have united under the banner of the INDIA bloc to field joint candidates against the BJP. Tomorrow marks the second phase of Lok Sabha elections across 13 States and Union Territories, characterized by intense competition and spirited campaigning, including sharp exchanges between leaders of the BJP, Congress, and other opposition parties.
The second phase of polling, initially scheduled for 89 seats, has been postponed to May 7 in Betul, Madhya Pradesh, following the unfortunate demise of a BSP candidate.
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Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is running for re-election from Kerala’s Wayanad constituency. In Thiruvananthapuram, another Congress leader, Shashi Tharoor, is seeking his fourth consecutive term. DK Suresh is contesting from Bangalore Rural, while Tejasvi Surya is running from Bangalore South.
According to the Election Commission, Kerala boasts over 2.75 crore voters. In the state, a total of 194 candidates across 20 Lok Sabha seats are vying for voter support as the state prepares for polling on Friday.
Meanwhile, Kerala’s Chief Electoral Officer, Sanjay Kaul, announced that 25,231 polling booths are fully prepared to welcome voters starting at 7 am tomorrow morning
Out of the 20 constituencies in Kerala heading to the polls, two seats – Alathur and Mavelikara – are designated for Scheduled Caste (SC) candidates.
In Wayanad, Congress leader and incumbent MP Rahul Gandhi is seeking reelection, facing off against Annie Raja of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). Despite both being part of the national INDIA alliance, they are political rivals in Kerala. The Congress has maintained victory in Wayanad since the 2009 general elections. The BJP, yet to secure a seat in the state, has nominated its state president K Surendran for the constituency.
In Thiruvananthapuram, senior Congress leader and former Union Minister Shashi Tharoor has won this seat in the 2009, 2014, and 2019 general elections. The former UN diplomat is contesting against BJP leader and Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar, and CPI’s Pannyan Raveendran.
In Thrissur, K Muraleedharan of Congress is up against VS Sunil Kumar of CPI and actor-turned-politician Suresh Gopi of BJP. Attingal sees sitting MP Adoor Prakash of Congress facing off against V Joy of CPM and V Muraleedharan of BJP.
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In Pathanamthitta, Congress’ Anto Antony is competing against Thomas Issac from the CPI(M) and Anil K Antony of the BJP.
In Kannur, Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) chief K Sudhakaran is contesting against CPI(M)’s MV Jayarajan and NDA candidate C Raghunath, who had switched from Congress to BJP.
In Kozhikode, Congress’ MK Raghavan, the UDF candidate, is running against CPI(M)’s Elamaram Kareemm, the LDF candidate, and BJP’s MT Ramesh.
In Kottayam, Thushar Vellappalli from Bharath Dharma Jana Sena is competing against K Francis George of Kerala Congress and Thomas Chazhikadan of Kerala Congress (M). In Alappuzha, KC Venugopal from Congress, Shobha Surendran from the Bharatiya Janata Party, and AM Ariff from the Communist Party of India (Marxist) are the contenders, with Ariff being the incumbent MP.
In 2019, the Congress party emerged victorious in 19 out of the 20 seats in Kerala, while the CPI-M could secure only one seat. The BJP failed to secure any seats.
In Karnataka, the BJP secured 25 out of 28 seats in the 2019 elections. This time, the BJP is contesting in 25 seats, with its state ally JDS vying for the remaining 3 seats. The constituencies contested by JDS in the second phase include Hassan, Mandya, and Kolar. Other crucial constituencies going to polls on April 26 include Bangalore South and Mysuru.
Key candidates in Karnataka include HD Kumaraswamy from JD(S) facing off against Congress’s Venkataramane Gowda (Star Chandru) in Mandya, and BJP’s Yaduveer Wadiyar against Congress’s M Lakshman in Mysuru. In Bengaluru Rural, sitting MP DK Suresh from Congress is up against BJP’s Cholenahalli Nanjappa Manjunath, son-in-law of former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda. In Bengaluru North, BJP’s Shobha Karandlaje is contesting against Congress’s MV Rajeev Gowda, while in Bengaluru Central, BJP’s PC Mohan is facing off against Congress’s Mansoor Ali Khan. In Bengaluru South, incumbent MP Tejasvi Surva is pitted against Congress candidate Sowmya Reddy.
The election campaigning has revolved around various issues, including the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), allegations of ‘love jihad’ (following the murder of Congress corporator’s daughter Neha Hiremath in Hubballi), controversies surrounding the movie ‘The Kerala Story’, the Manipur violence incident, and Rahul Gandhi’s candidature in Wayanad against Annie Raja.
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Furthermore, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar expressed confidence in the Bharatiya Janata Party “picking up many more” seats in the southern States during the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.
Jaishankar asserted that a “new level of energy and enthusiasm” is seen across South India.
“I think what you are seeing in South India is really a very new level of energy and enthusiasm. I could see that in Telangana, where I was, but in other southern states as well. So I think there’s a genuine possibility, a serious possibility this time that the BJP would actually pick up many more seats in all the southern states,” Jaishankar said.
Earlier on Wednesday, Jaishankar campaigned for the BJP’s candidate from the Bhuvanagiri Lok Sabha seat in Telangana. Earlier this week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed confidence that the BJP’s vote share in the South would increase this time compared to the previous parliamentary polls.
In an interview with Asianet News Network on April 21, PM Modi said, “You see Telangana, where our vote share has doubled. In the 2019 parliamentary elections, the BJP emerged as the single largest party in the South. The BJP has the highest number of MPs. I believe that in 2024 (the Lok Sabha elections), the vote share is going to increase compared to the previous elections. Seats will also increase.”
The second phase encompasses 88 Lok Sabha constituencies, including all 20 seats in Kerala, 14 in Karnataka, 13 in Rajasthan, eight in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, five each in Assam and Bihar, six in Madhya Pradesh, three each in Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, and one each in Tripura, Manipur, and Jammu and Kashmir. Voting will commence at 7 am tomorrow and conclude at 6 pm. The Lok Sabha election is conducted in seven phases until June 1, with votes being counted on June 4.
The first phase of voting for the seven-phased Lok Sabha election, recognized as the world’s largest electoral exercise, took place on April 19 in 102 constituencies across 21 states and UTs. The Election Commission reported a voter turnout of over 62 percent. The third phase election is scheduled for May 7.
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