Amidst a heated dispute between the Congress and the BJP on their agenda and inheritance tax, voting is underway in 88 constituencies spread across 13 states and Union Territories. All of Kerala’s seats as well as several in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh will go to election.
Twenty seats in Kerala, fourteen in Karnataka, thirteen in Rajasthan, eight in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, seven in Madhya Pradesh, five in Assam and Bihar, three in Bengal and Chhattisgarh, and one in each of Jammu and Kashmir, Manipur, and Tripura are up for election in the second phase.
89 constituencies were initially anticipated to cast ballots in this round. However, the election in Betul, Madhya Pradesh, was delayed due to the passing of a Bahujan Samaj Party candidate, which is led by Mayawati. Betul will now vote in the third phase, due on May 7.
Rahul Gandhi, KC Venugopal, and Bhupesh Baghel of the Congress are important contenders for this round. and Vaibhav Gehlot, the son of Ashok Gehlot, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the Union minister for the BJP, who is running against Shashi Tharoor of the Congress in Thiruvananthapuram; actors Hema Malini and Arun Govil from the cult classic Ramayan from the 1980s; senior BJP leader Tejasvi Surya; and Speaker of the Lok Sabha Om Birla.
Kerala and Karnataka will be the most important states in this period for both the Opposition and the BJP. 25 of Karnataka’s 28 Lok Sabha seats were won by the BJP in 2019, however the Congress prevailed in the most recent assembly election. Amid worries over delimitation and the potential disadvantages for southern states after it, the party is hoping for a strong showing.
The BJP is attempting to enter Kerala’s divisive politics further south. The party, which fielded Union ministers Rajiv Chandrasekhar and V Muraleedharan, is seeking to make an impression in the state. In Wayanad, a Congress stronghold for more than two decades, it has put up K Surendran, the head of the state unit, to challenge Rahul Gandhi.
Kerala presents the Opposition with great optimism. Despite the fact that the Left and the Congress are pitted against one another in the southern state, whichever party wins will increase the Opposition bloc INDIA’s total. One of the few states without a single BJP MP serving in parliament is Kerala.
In its pursuit of 370 seats, the BJP intends to grow in the south and east while the north, west, and northeast of the country are already fully represented. In 2019, the party secured 303 seats, with most of them coming from the northeast and Gujarat, as well as the Hindi heartland.
However, the Congress has stated that it would perform far better than it did in 2019. Their assertions have gained more traction since the election’s first round, particularly in Rajasthan and western Uttar Pradesh. Tejashwi Yadav, the leader of the Rashtriya Janata Dal, has declared that India will win all five seats in Bihar.
The Congress and the BJP are engaged in a fierce battle that is centred around the election. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remark that the Congress will redistribute people’s personal wealth among “infiltrators” and won’t even spare women’s mangalsutras if voted to power set off the controversy. In 55 years of party leadership, the Congress has questioned whether the people had to fear for their wealth and mangalsutras, and it has accused the BJP of avoiding important concerns.
May 7 is when the next round of voting is due. Three days after the seventh and final round of voting on June 1, on June 4, the votes will be counted.
