Phase 2 of the LS polls: Rahul Gandhi and Shashi Tharoor are in contention; Hema Malini and Om Birla aim for a hat-trick of victories

NEW DELHI: Hema Malini, Om Birla, and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat of the BJP are vying for a hat-trick of victories from their respective constituencies in the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections, alongside prominent contenders such as Congressmen Rahul Gandhi and Shashi Tharoor, as well as actor-turned-politician Arun Govil.

The first round of the elections, which are spread across seven stages and 102 seats among 21 states and Union territories, had a turnout of around 65.5% of voters last Friday.

Polling is planned in all 20 seats in Kerala, 14 of the 28 seats in Karnataka, 13 seats in Rajasthan, 8 seats in each of Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, 7 seats in Madhya Pradesh, 5 seats in each of Assam and Bihar, 3 seats in each of Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, and 1 seat each in Manipur, Tripura, and Jammu and Kashmir in the second phase of Lok Sabha elections, which takes place on Friday.

Gandhi, the Wayanad, Kerala, MP currently in office, is running for reelection. He is up against K Surendran of the BJP and Annie Raja of the CPI.

Gandhi defeated his nearest opponent, P. P Suneer of the CPI, by a wide margin of more than 7 lakh votes in the 2019 election.

Shashi Tharoor, a senior Congress politician and former Union minister, is attempting to win back the Thiruvananthapuram seat a fourth time.

He is up against Pannyan Raveendran of the CPI and Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar of the BJP.

Malini, who has served as the Mathura constituency’s representative since 2014, is running against Congressman Mukesh Dhangar, while Om Birla, a two-term Kota MP, is up against Congressman Prahlad Gunjal.

While Congress contender Karan Singh Uchiyarda will try to throw a wrench in the BJP candidate’s plans, Union minister Shekhawat is aiming for a third victory from the Jodhpur seat.

Sowmya Reddy of the Congress will take against Tejasvi Surya, the current Member of Parliament for Bangalore South and National President of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM).

Bhupesh Baghel, a Congressman and former chief minister of Chhattisgarh, is running from Rajnandgaon, a BJP bastion for more than 30 years.

Baghel will compete against Santosh Pandey of the BJP, who won the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and replaced Abhishek Singh, the party’s nominee for chief minister and son of previous chief minister Raman Singh.

Casting his first electoral appearance against BSP’s Devvrat Kumar Tyagi and SP’s Sunita Verma, Arun Govil, best known for his portrayal of Lord Ram in the Ramayan TV series, is replacing three-time MP Rajendra Agarwal, who has held the Meerut seat since 2004.

Virendra Kumar Khatik, the head of the BJP in Madhya Pradesh, is aiming for a fourth victory in Tikamgarh.

A fresh face from the seat, Pankaj Ahirwar, has been fielded by the Congress.

Khatik beat Kiran Ahirwar of the Congress by a margin of more than 3.48 lakh votes in 2019.

With All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary K C Venugopal returning to the Lok Sabha poll race after 2014, the race for the Alappuzha seat in Kerala has become a prestige fight for the Congress as it attempts to reclaim the one seat it lost to the CPI-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) in its resounding 19-1 victory in Kerala in the 2019 elections.

In his career, Venugopal has never lost a significant election.

In 1996, 2001, and 2006, he won the Alappuzha Assembly seat three times in a row. In 2009 and 2014, he was elected from Alappuzha to the Lok Sabha.

He did not run for office in 2019 after the party promoted him to the position of AICC general secretary.

Suresh Gopi, a former actor turned politician, is also running from Thrissur against K Muraleedharan of the Congress and Sunil Kumar of the CPI (M).

The current BJP MP for West Bengal’s Balurghat, Sukanta Majumdar, is running for reelection.

He is up against Joydeb Siddhanta of the Revolutionary Socialist Party and Biplab Mitra of the Trinamool Congress.