India
The second phase of voting for the Lok Sabha Elections 2024 is scheduled for April 26 (Friday).
Updated : Apr 25, 2024, 11:38 PM IST
The second phase of voting for the Lok Sabha Elections 2024 is scheduled for April 26 (Friday). This phase will cover 89 Lok Sabha constituencies across 13 states, including Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Rajasthan, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, and Jammu & Kashmir.
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WATCH Former Maharashtra Chief Minister and Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray releases the party manifesto named 'Vachan nama' for the Lok Sabha elections, in Mumbai.LokSabhaElections2024 pic.twitter.com/6dcQhs8X8N
— ANI (@ANI) April 25, 2024
'Decision regarding the Kannauj seat has been taken after listening to the wishes of people and party workers here. After declaring Tej Pratap's name as a candidate, I was told by many to contest in these (Lok Sabha) polls and give him a chance if by-election happens," he said.
Amid the reports of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi contesting from the Amethi Lok Sabha seat, Samajwadi Party Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday said that everyone will gather in Uttar Pradesh now.
Replying to the question "Now that you have come to Kannauj, is your friend (Rahul Gandhi) going to come (contest) to Amethi", Akhilesh Yadav said, "Sab aayenge ab toh (Everyone will come now), mehfil toh ab UP mein hi sajegi (The gathering will be in Uttar Pradesh only)."
Akhilesh Yadav was in Kannauj where he filed his nomination for the Lok Sabha polls. Samajwadi Party Rajya Sabha MP Ramgopal Yadav accompanied Akhilesh while he was filing his nomination. Akhilesh Yadav was elected to the 13th Lok Sabha from Kannauj in a by-election in 2000. He was then re-elected twice from the same constituency in 2004 and 2009. He took over as UP CM in 2012 and returned to the Lok Sabha in 2019 as an MP from Azamgarh. In 2022 he resigned from the LS to be a part of the UP Assembly. Voting on the Kannauj seat will be held in the fourth phase of the Lok Sabha election on May 13.
Earlier, the party declared Tej Pratap Yadav, Akhilesh's nephew and son-in-law of RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, as its candidate.
As per the seat agreement between the Samajwadi Party and Congress in Uttar Pradesh, Congress is contesting on 17 seats and the Samajwadi Party has the remaining 63 seats in the electorally crucial state
Congress leaders Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Rahul Gandhi may contest the Lok Sabha election from Rae Bareli and Amethi seats, respectively, sources said on Thursday.
According to the sources, the final decision will be taken after April 26 and nominations can be filed next week. Phase 2 of the elections is scheduled for Phase 2. In this phase, Wayanad from where Rahul Gandhi is contesting will go to the polls.
Smriti Irani defeated Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Amethi. Irani has again been fielded by the BJP from the seat.
As per the seat agreement between the Samajwadi Party and Congress in Uttar Pradesh, Congress will contest 17 seats and the Samajwadi Party the remaining 63 seats in the electorally crucial state.
Apart from its traditional strongholds of Rae Bareli and Amethi, the Congress is also contesting on Varanasi, Ghaziabad and Kanpur.
More than 11,000 voters enrolled in the electoral rolls of the East Tripura parliamentary constituency have exercised their franchise through various special voting procedures ahead of the poll day, a senior official said.
They are among the 13.96 lakh eligible voters who are supposed to cast their votes in the second phase of the general elections to Lok Sabha scheduled on April 26. The vocal campaign for the politically crucial ST reserved constituency came to an end on Wednesday, Chief Electoral Officer Puneet Agarwal informed.
Sharing details of the poll preparedness, Agarwal said, "On 17 and 18 home voting for the Persons with disabilities and 85 plus voters was conducted. In this process, 4,515 voters have cast their valuable votes. Apart from that, 165 people voted under the essential services category and 6,379 voters cast their votes through postal ballots. In all of these cases, more than 94 per cent casting is achieved."
In its letter to the ECI, the BJP said, "This is to bring to your kind notice that, today, i.e. on April 24, just two days before the poll, the Congress party published totally false, malicious and defamatory news advertisements in the front page of almost all notable newspapers."
The BJP alleged that the Congress Party has published an advertisement with the heading 'Chambu' to portray that the Central Government has cheated the state of Karnataka.
"It has published an advertisement with the heading 'Chambu' along with its picture. The word 'Chambu' is a slang term used to refer to 'being cheated or empty promise'. The insinuation of the Congress party by publishing such an advertisement is to portray that the Central Government has cheated the state of Karnataka," the letter said.
The party in its letter also shared some of the advertisements published in the notable newspapers.
The BJP alleged that the Congress knowing fully well about the above actual statistics has falsely made the advertisement on the front pages of notable newspapers after severe deliberations and calculations, in order to prejudice the minds of the voters, to influence the outcome of the elections by making false statements without any basis."This advertisement will have serious implications on the outcome of the election, which is violative of the Model Code of Conduct and the Representative of the People Act. The said ad grossly violates the provisions enshrined under the Model Code of Conduct," the letter added.
The 28 seats of Karnataka are going to polls in two phases -- April 26 and May 7. The counting is scheduled for June 4. BJP registered a strong performance in the state in the 2019 general elections as it won 25 out of 28 seats.
-ANI