Infosys founder Narayana Murthy, wife Sudha Murty cast votes in Bengaluru

BENGALURU: Infosys founder Narayana Murthy on Friday cast his vote at the BES College polling station in Jayanagar 4th Block, Bengaluru. His wife and Rajya Sabha MP, Sudha Murty, also cast her vote today.

Sudha Murty urged people, specifically youngsters, to exercise their right to vote and choose their leaders. “I want to tell everyone — don’t sit at home, come out and vote, choose your leader. I always feel that urban people vote less as compared to those in rural areas. I request youngsters to come out and vote”.

#WATCH | Author and philanthropist Sudha Murty casts her votes in Lok Sabha elections in Bengaluru

"I want to tell everyone- don't sit at home, come out and vote, choose your leader. I always feel that urban people vote less as compared to those in rural areas. I request… pic.twitter.com/bl7NGqx0Gu

— ANI (@ANI) April 26, 2024

Karnataka is voting on 14 seats today in the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections. The second phase has 88 Lok Sabha constituencies, including all 20 seats in Kerala, 14 in Karnataka, 13 in Rajasthan, eight in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, five each in Assam and Bihar, six in Madhya Pradesh, three each in Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, and one each in Tripura, Manipur and Jammu and Kashmir.

From Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in Wayanad, Shashi Tharoor in Thiruvananthapuram to Hema Malini in Mathura and Arun Govil in Meerut, the fates of several prominent personalities will be locked by the voters on Friday.

Voting for the second phase of the Lok Sabha election began at 7 am on Friday and will conclude at 6 pm. The Lok Sabha election is being held in seven phases till June 1 and votes will be counted on June 4.

Initially, 89 constituencies were scheduled to go to the polls today. However, the EC later announced that the voting in Madhya Pradesh’s Betul would not take place during the second phase due to the death of a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate.

As many as 1202 candidates, including 1098 males and 102 females, are in the fray. There are 8.08 crore male and 7.8 crore female voters among the electorate who will decide the fate of candidates. As many as 5,929 third-gender electors will also exercise their franchise in the second phase of the polls.

The apex poll body further said that 34.8 lakh first-time voters are registered to cast their votes. “Additionally, there are 3.28 crore young voters in the age group 20-29 years,” it added.

There are over 14.78 lakh registered 85+ years old, 42,226 voters above 100 years old, and 14.7 lakh PwD voters for phase two who have been provided the option to vote from the comfort of their homes.

The optional home voting facility is already receiving tremendous appreciation and response, the election commission added.

As per the poll body, webcasting is being done in over 1 lakh polling stations. “Around 251 observers (89 general observers, 53 police observers, 109 expenditure observers) have already reached their Constituencies days before the polls. They serve as the eyes and ears of the Commission to exercise utmost vigilance. Additionally, special observers have been deployed in certain states”, it said.

Around 4,195 model polling stations are set up across the 88 Parliamengtary Constituencies (PCs) with local themes. More than 4100 Polling stations will be completely managed by women including security staff and at over 640 Polling stations by Persons with Disabilities (PwDs). Polling stations in all states and UTs except Bihar and Kerala have less than 1000 average electors per polling station.

The first phase of voting for the seven-phased Lok Sabha election, the world’s largest electoral exercise, was held on April 19 in 102 constituencies across 21 states and UTs. According to the Election Commission, the voter turnout registered was over 62 per cent. The third phase election will be held on May 7. (ANI)