LS Polls: Rahul Gandhi, Arun Govil, Shashi Tharoor Among Bigwigs In Fray In Phase 2 | Key Candidates & Seats

The fate of several bigwigs from top political parties will be sealed in Phase 2 of Lok Sabha elections 2024 taking place on Friday, April 26 in 88 constituencies across 13 states and Union Territories.

The first phase of the Lok Sabha elections, which is taking place in a total of seven phases, took place on April 19. Phase 3 to 7 will take place on: May 7, May 13, May 30, May 25, and June 1, respectively. Click Here For Outlook India's Election Coverage

Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, Shashi Tharoor, BJP's Hema Malini, Tejasvi Surya, Arun Govil are among the key faces whose constituencies are going to polls on Friday, April 26, in the Phase 2 of Lok Sabha Elections.

Lok Sabha Elections 2024 Phase 2 | Key Candidates

Rahul Gandhi: Congress leader and MP from Kerala's Wayanad Rahul Gandhi is seeking re-election from the constituency which is voting on Friday. Rahul Gandhi is pitted against CPI's Annie Raja and BJP's K Surendran. In the 2019 election, Rahul Gandhi won by a substantial margin of more than 7 lakh votes against his closest rival, CPI's P P Suneer.

Arun Govil: Arun Govil, famous for portraying Lord Ram's character in Ramayan TV series, has been fielded from UP's Meerut, which is going to polls on Friday, April 26. Arun Govil has been pitted against BSP's Devvrat Kumar Tyagi and SP's Sunita Verma.

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Shashi Tharoor: Senior Congress leader and former Union Minister Shashi Tharoor is aiming to retain the Thiruvananthapuram seat for the fourth time. Shashi Tharoor has been fielded against Union Minister and BJP leader Rajeev Chandrasekhar and CPI's Pannyan Raveendran.

Tejasvi Surya: BJP's Tejasvi Surya is sitting MP for Bangalore South and the national president of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM). Tejasvi Surya will face Congress' Sowmya Reddy.

Read Here | Full List Of BJP Candidates For Lok Sabha Elections

Hema Malini, Om Birla: BJP's Mathura MP, actor-politician Hema Malini, has been representing the constituency since 2014. Hema Malini is contesting against Congress's Mukesh Dhangar. Current Lok Sabha speaker and BJP leader Om Birla, a two-time MP from Kota, is facing Prahlad Gunjal of the Congress party from the constituency.

Gajendra Singh Shekhawat: Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat is eyeing a third win from the Jodhpur seat while Congress candidate Karan Singh Uchiyarda is eyeing to put a spanner in the works of the BJP candidate.

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Bhupesh Baghel: Former chief minister of Chhattisgarh and Congress leader Bhupesh Baghel is contesting from Rajnandgaon, a BJP stronghold for over 30 years. Baghel is contending against BJP's Santosh Pandey, who won the 2019 Lok Sabha elections succeeding Abhishek Singh, the son of former Chief Minister Raman Singh, also from the BJP.

Read Here | Full List Of Congress Candidates For Lok Sabha Elections

Virendra Kumar Khatik: BJP leader Virendra Kumar Khatik is eyeing a fourth win from In Madhya Pradesh's Tikamgarh. The Congress has fielded a new face, Pankaj Ahirwar, from the constituency. In 2019, Khatik defeated Congress’ Kiran Ahirwar by a margin of over 3.48 lakh votes.

KC Venugopal: Congress's KC Venugopal, fielded from Kerala's Alappuzha seat, has returned to the Lok Sabha poll fray after 2014 as the party looks to wrest the only seat it lost to the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) in its landslide 19-1 victory in Kerala in the 2019 polls.

Venugopal, who has not lost any major election in his career, won the Alappuzha Assembly seat thrice in a row in 1996, 2001, and 2006 and was elected to the Lok Sabha from Alappuzha in 2009 and 2014.

In 2019, he did not contest after the party elevated him to the post of the AICC general secretary.

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Suresh Gopi: Actor-turned-politician Suresh Gopi is also in the fray for the BJP from Kerala's Thrissur against K Muraleedharan of Congress and VS Sunil Kumar of CPI(M). The BJP is hoping to open its account in Kerala with Suresh Gopi.

Sukanta Majumdar: The incumbent BJP MP from Balurghat in West Bengal is seeking re-election. He is pitted against Biplab Mitra of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Joydeb Siddhanta of the Revolutionary Socialist Party.

HD Kumaraswamy, DK Suresh: JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy from Mandya, his brother-in-law and noted cardiologist CN Manjunath from Bangalore Rural on a BJP ticket, erstwhile Mysuru royal family scion Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar from Mysore, also from the BJP, and Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar's brother and MP DK Suresh of Congress from Bangalore Rural, are among the prominent candidates in the fray in Karnataka.

Pappu Yadav: In the intense three-cornered battle in Bihar, Pappu Yadav, a Congress leader contesting as an Independent, will be giving a tough fight in Bihar's Purnea to JD(U) MP Santosh Kushwaha who aims a hat-trick, Three-time former MP Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav merged his Jan Adhikar Party with the Congress but couldn’t get the party ticket for Purnea as the seat went to the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) as part of the parties’ seat-sharing deal. RJD has fielded Bima Bharti, an MLA who recently crossed over from the chief minister’s party, from the seat.

In the second phase of Lok Sabha polls on Friday, polling is scheduled in all 20 seats of Kerala, 14 of the 28 seats in Karnataka, 13 seats in Rajasthan, eight seats each in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, seven in Madhya Pradesh, five each in Assam and Bihar, three seats each in Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, and one seat each in Manipur, Tripura and Jammu and Kashmir.

(with PTI inputs)