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LS polls: 2nd phase today

NT Correspondent

New Delhi: Voting for the second phase of Lok Sabha polls will be held on Friday for 88 seats in 13 states with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi seeking a second-straight term from Wayanad in Kerala.

All 20 seats of Kerala will go to polls besides 14 of the 28 seats in Karnataka, 13 seats in Rajasthan, 8 seats each in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, 6 seats in Madhya Pradesh, 5 seats each in Assam and Bihar, 3 seats each in Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, and 1 seat each in Manipur, Tripura and Jammu and Kashmir.

Though voting was to be held for 89 seats in the second phase, polling for the Betul seat in Madhya Pradesh has been rescheduled to the third phase due to the death of a candidate from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).

The Election Commission (EC) said more than 16 lakh polling officials have been deployed across 1.67 lakh polling stations for over 15.88 crore voters.

Voters include 8.08 crore male, 7.8 crore female and 5,929 third gender electors. As many as 34.8 lakh first-time voters are registered to cast their votes.

Additionally, there are 3.28 crore young voters in the age group of 20- 29 years, the poll authority said.

Keeping in mind the heatwave, the EC has extended polling time in several polling stations of four constituencies in Bihar.