Elections to Vellore seat in TN and one in Tripura postponed over different reasons on Tuesday
Campaigning ended at 5 p.m. on Tuesday for the second phase of Lok Sabha polls in which 95 constituencies, spread over 12 states and one Union Territory, will go to polls on Thursday. Accepting recommendation by the Election Commission of India (EC), President Ram Nath Kovind on Tuesday cancelled voting in Tamil Nadu's Vellore Lok Sabha constituency, in the wake of seizures of large amounts of unaccounted cash from the state. Also, polling in East Tripura constituency has been deferred from April 18 to April 23.
Thirty eight constituencies of Tamil Nadu are going to the polls in this phase besides 14 in Karnataka, 10 in Maharashtra, eight in Uttar Pradesh, five each in Assam, Bihar and Odisha, three each in Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, two in Jammu and Kashmir and one each in Manipur, Tripura and Puducherry. Elections will also be held in 35 assembly constituencies in Odisha.
Among the key contestants in the fray are Union ministers Jual Oram, Sadananda Gowda and Pon Radhakrishnan, former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, Congress leaders Verappa Moily and Raj Babbar, National Conference president Farooq Abdullah, BJP's Hema Malini and DMK's Dayanidhi Maran, A Raja and Kanimozhi.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP chief Amit Shah, Congress president Rahul Gandhi and a host of Union ministers among others canvassed for their party candidates in the past few days, undertaking whirlwind tours of constituencies.
After finding a huge cache of cash, the Election Commission has identified all the seats in Tamil Nadu as expenditure sensitive and the poll watchdog is making special efforts to check money power at display in flagrant violation to rules.
Shivaganga in Tamil Nadu is also up for an interesting contest where the face-off is between former union finance minister P Chidambaram's son Karti Chidambaram that has DMK's support and H Raja of BJP and AIDMK alliance. The constituency has six assembly seats with a total of 14 lakh voters. In 2014, Senthilnathan PR of AIDMK had defeated DMK's Dhurai Raaj Subha by 22.34% votes.
There is a three-cornered contest in the communally sensitive Aligarh of Uttar Pradesh between BJP's Satish Kumar Gautam, Mahagathbandhan's Ajit Baliyan and Bijendra Singh of Congress. PM Modi's rally on Sunday had drawn huge crowds here, yet it is considered a tough contest. In 2014, Satish Kumar Gautam had defeated Dr Arvind Kumar Singh (BSP) by a margin of record 26.94 percent.
Silchar in Assam offers an interesting contest between Congress' MP Sushmita Dev and Dr Rajdeep Roy Bengali of BJP. The main bone of contention here, like elsewhere in Assam is the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill. Silchar is also in spotlight as PM Modi visited it more than once, while Congress' Priyanka Gandhi also held a massive roadshow on Sunday.
In this phase, 27% or 427 candidates are crorepatis with assets worth Rs 1 crore and above. As many as 11% of the candidates have declared assets above Rs 5 crore while 41% have declared assets below Rs 10 lakh, according to an analysis by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). The average asset per candidate contesting in Lok Sabha Phase II polls is Rs 3.9 crore.
Among the major parties 46 (87%) out of 53 candidates from INC, 45 (88%) out of 51 candidates from BJP, 23 (96%) out of 24 candidates from DMK, 22 (100%) candidates from AIADMK and 21 (26%) out of 80 candidates from BSP have declared assets worth more than Rs 1 crore.
With assets worth more than Rs 417 crore, Vasanthakumar H of Congress from Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu is the richest among all the candidates contesting in this phase. He is followed by Uday Singh of the Congress from Purnia in Bihar at Rs 341 crore and DK Suresh from the same party from Bengaluru South in Karnataka at Rs 338 crore.
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