Lok Sabha Election 2024 Voting Updates: Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged people to vote in record numbers today, April 26, in the second phase of the Lok Sabha Elections 2024, which is taking place in 88 parliamentary constituencies across 13 states and Union Territories (UTs). Asserting that a high voter participation enhances democracy, the Prime Minister also urged youth voters and women voters to vote in large numbers.
Congress leaders, including Malikarjun Kharge and Priyanka Gandhi, issued voting pleas, claiming that the election was to’save the constitution’.
The voting started at 7 a.m. and will continue until 5 p.m. The Election Commission gives an extra hour of buffer time for voters who are already in the voting queue.
The Election Commission of India reported 39.1% voter turnout in all 88 seats as of 1 p.m. According to the Election Commission, turnout was 38.2% in Karnataka, 54.98% in Tripura, 38.01% in Kerala, 35.73% in Bihar, and 35.75% in Uttar Pradesh as of 1 p.m.
In this phase, up to 15.88 crore electors are eligible to vote. The voting population consists of 8.08 crore males, 7.8 crore women, and 5,929 third-gender electors. There are also 3.28 crore young voters between the ages of 20 and 29. 34.8 lakh first-time voters have registered to vote in this round.
On April 19, up to 109 seats went to the polls in Phase 1. The first phase had a voting participation of around 62 percent. The counting of votes for all seven phases of the Lok Sabha elections will take place on June 4.
The seats up for election on April 26 include all 20 Lok Sabha constituencies in Kerala, 14 in Karnataka, 13 in Rajasthan, eight each in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, seven in Madhya Pradesh, five each in Assam and Bihar, three in West Bengal and Chhattisgarh, and one each in Jammu and Kashmir, Manipur, and Tripura.
Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Shashi Tharoor, BJP youth icon Tejasvi Surya, Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar, actor-turned-politicians Hema Malini and Arun Govil, and Om Birla, the speaker of the outgoing Lok Sabha, are among the 1,210 candidates running in Phase 2 of the Lok Sabha elections.
