Kolkata: Heat wave is going on in the southern states of West Bengal. North Bengal is not left out.
In the heat of the year, the election tension is going on in the state. Voting for the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections is underway on Friday (April 26) in three constituencies in West Bengal.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has come to the state for election campaign in intense heat. Jansabha Modi in Malda North. Besides, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has two public meetings in Medinipur East. Voting in these two constituencies is in the third and fourth phase.
The three-seat booths in West Bengal were crowded early in the morning. Most of the citizens exercised their right to vote in the morning. Polling starts at 7 am. Up to 11 am, the voting in three constituencies in West Bengal is about 30 percent. Between 7 am and 9 am, 241 complaints were submitted to the Election Commission. 43 of these can be resolved by the commission.
The second phase of Lok Sabha elections is underway in 88 constituencies across 12 states and one Union Territory of India. Around 9.3 percent voting in Indian states till 9 am.
Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi is contesting the polls in this phase. Rahul has again contested from his old constituency Waynar in Kerala. His main fight there is against CPI candidate Annie Raja of Left Alliance LDF. She is the wife of Kerala CPI General Secretary D Raja. BJP state president K Surendran is also present in that state. As a result, the electoral battle is a little more difficult for Rahul than the other times.
Congress candidate and former Union Minister and United Nations diplomat Shashi Tharoor is contesting in Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram seat, BJP’s candidate for this seat is Union Water Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar. Actress Hema Malini is contesting on a BJP ticket from Mathura. Former Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh Bhupesh Bagel is contesting on Congress ticket in Rajnandgaon seat. BJP candidate Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat is in Jodhpur.
Actor Arun Govil is fighting in Meerut. Malayalam actor Suresh Gopi is contesting on a BJP ticket in Thrissur. Congress general secretary KC Venugopal in Alappuzha seat, outgoing Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla in Kota seat, Rajasthan BJP state president CP Joshi in Chittorgarh seat, BJP candidate and actress Navneet Rana in Amravati seat, Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha All India President Tejaswi Surya in Bengaluru South seat, H.D. Kumaraswamy voting.
Besides West Bengal, polling is being held in 20 seats in Kerala, 14 in Karnataka, 13 in Rajasthan, eight in Uttar Pradesh, eight in Maharashtra, six in Madhya Pradesh, five in Assam and five in Bihar, three in Chhattisgarh and one each in Tripura, Manipur and Jammu and Kashmir. Voting will continue till 6 pm.
Bangladesh Time: 1342 hours, April 26, 2024
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