New Delhi: It is only the second of the five phases of the Lok Sabha elections, but is already being seen as the turning point of this election.
This is because by the end of the polling on Thursday, voting would be over in 265 seats, which is nearly half of the Lok Sabha. This phase also has the most number of seats - 141.
Apart from these things, the polling in this phase is quite critical for the big two alliances. It is vital for the UPA because by Thursday, Andhra, Assam and Maharashtra would have pretty much decided the fate of the alliance. The UPA had won 60 seats last time, just in these three states. Whereas for the NDA, it's critical because Madhya Pradesh, which it swept last time, and Assam, where it's fighting with the AGP, are voting.
And for both the alliances, Bihar is the big battleground in this phase. Voting will be over in 26 of the 40 seats in the state.
However, the hot summer has apparently taken its toll on the voting process as two polling officials have died due to heat stroke in Keonjhar and Mayurbhanj in Orissa.
The polling began across 13 states for 141 Lok Sabha seats. More than 19 crore people are registered to vote in this phase, and there are a total of 2041 candidates in the fray, out of which only 121 are female candidates.
NCP chief and UPA ally Sharad Pawar voted on Thursday morning in Baramati, which is a Pawar stronghold. He has always contested and won from Baramati, but after the breakup of constituencies due to delimitation, he's now contesting from Madha.
Pawar's daughter Supriya Sule is contesting from the Baramati seat.
The NCP has tied up with the Congress in Maharashtra and Goa, and after initial differences, Pawar did share the stage with Sonia Gandhi during the campaign.
In the last elections in 2004, the NCP had won by over 71 per cent votes in Baramati.
Meanwhile, former Maharashtra chief minister Sushil Kumar Shinde is contesting for the Solapur seat whereas Union Minister for Minority Affairs A R Antulay is in the fray from the Raigad seat.
Union Minister Ramvilas Paswan of the Lok Janshakti Party is among those, whose fate will also be locked in this phase of polling. He is contesting from the Hajipur constituency in Bihar.
Thirteen of the 40 constituencies of Bihar are voting on Thursday. While Paswan is contesting from Hajipur, other big names that are contesting in this phase in Bihar include filmmaker-turned-politician Prakash Jha (Pashchim Champaran), cricketer-turned-politician Kirti Azad (Darbhanga) and former defence minister George Fernandes (Muzaffarpur).
Meanwhile, polling has also begun in Amethi amid tight security. Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi is contesting from the constituency. In the last Lok Sabha elections, Rahul Gandhi won with a landslide majority, defeating his closest rival of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by over 2.5 lakh votes.
The political fate of some important names will also be locked in this phase of polling in Karnataka. These names include Venkaiah Naidu (BJP), Ananth Kumar (BJP), S M Krishna (Congress), H D Kumaraswamy (JD-S), H D Deve Gowda (JD-S) and Captain Gopinath (Independent).