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Congress MP and candidate from Thiruvananthapuram, Shashi Tharoor queued up outside a polling booth in the constituency as he awaited his turn to cast his vote.
Shashi Tharoor, a former UN diplomat and Congress leader will be seeking a fourth straight term from Thiruvananthapuram constituency, as he is faces a two-front contest against Union Minister of State, Rajeev Chandrashekhar and Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Panniyan Ravindran. Tharoor, who has held the seat since 2009, is facing a challenge as the BJP has named a strong face against him. Chandrashekhar has served as the MoS for electronics, Entrepreneurship and Information Technology. Earlier on Thursday while speaking to ANI, Tharoor appeared confident of returning to parliament. "Elections are decided by the people. The people have conveyed very clearly to us...exactly what they feel. The trust they have placed in me three times in a row, they are prepared to place in me once more... The BJP is so desperate now, that they are scenting failure. After the first round when all the indications coming out of the voting booths were that people had turned against the BJP governments in a big way, even in the Hindi-speaking states... We're getting the indication that the BJP is in for a very rude shock," he had said. The second phase of polls has 88 Lok Sabha constituencies across 13 States/Union Territory including 20 in Kerala, 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 & Kashmir With weather conditions predicted to be within normal ranges, voters can cast their vote comfortably. For the convenience of voters, meticulous arrangements have been made at all polling stations including facilities, to deal with hot weather conditions, according to the Election Commission. According to the ECI, over 15.88 crore voters will be voting in the second phase which includes 8.08 crore male electors, 7.8 crore female electors, and 5929 third-gender electors. A total of 4553 flying squads, 5731 static surveillance teams, 1462 video surveillance teams and 844 video viewing teams are keeping surveillance round the clock to strictly and swiftly deal with any form of inducement of voters across the 1.67 lakh polling stations, as per the ECI press note. (ANI)
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