13 Lok Sabha seats in Rajasthan to go to polls in second phase on Friday

Jaipur: After a high-voltage electioneering in Rajasthan polling on 13 out of 25 Lok Sabha seats will be held on Friday.

Among the 152 candidates in the fray in this phase are two Union ministers, the BJP state president and a former Assembly Speaker. The sons of two former chief ministers are also contesting in this phase of Lok Sabha elections.

Polling will be held on Friday at 28,758 booths from 7 am to 6 pm. Around 2.80 crore voters are eligible to vote in the second phase. This is the final phase of elections for Rajasthan where polling on 12 seats was held in the first phase on April 19.

Along with Lok Sabha general elections, a by-election will also be held in Bagidora assembly seat in Banswara which became vacant after Congress MLA Mahendrajeet Singh Malviya joined BJP.

Malviya is contesting the Lok Sabha election from Banswara as the BJP candidate.

More than 1.72 lakh personnel have been deployed on election duty to ensure free and fair polls while 82,487 security personnel including policemen, home guards, forest guards, and Rajasthan Armed Constabulary jawans.

Chief electoral officer Praveen Gupta said 175 companies of central police forces will also be there for security-related arrangements.

Barmer-Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Jalore, Chittorgarh, Banswara and Kota-Bundi are the hot seats in this phase. The other constituencies going to polls are Tonk-Sawai Madhopur, Ajmer, Pali, Udaipur, Rajsamand, Kota and Jhalawar-Baran.

After a low voter turnout during the first phase of elections on April 19 at 58.28 per cent, leaders focused on urging people to vote in the second phase.

The election campaign in the second phase heated up with Prime Minister Narendra Modi attacking Congress and calling it a party of "urban naxals".

Addressing a rally in Rajasthan's Banswara last week, PM Modi suggested that if the Congress comes to power, it would "redistribute" wealth to Muslims. He alleged that Congress plans to give the people's hard-earned money and valuables to the "infiltrators" and "those who have more children".

In another rally in Tonk, Modi accused the Congress of attempting to reduce the reservation for Dalits, tribals and backwards and give it to Muslims against the spirit of the Constitution.

Located along the India-Pakistan border, Barmer-Jaisalmer is the largest Lok Sabha constituency of Rajasthan. It is witnessing a triangular contest among Independent candidate Ravindra Singh Bhati, the Congress' Ummeda Ram and the BJP's Kailash Chaudhary.

Bhati, 26, is an Independent MLA from the Sheo constituency of Barmer district.  Former Chief Minister and Congress leader Ashok Gehlot's son Vaibhav Gehlot is contesting the Lok Sabha election from Jalore. Ashok Gehlot focused most of his campaigning on this seat and is likely to make it a tough contest for the BJP's Lumbaram, a grassroots-level leader.

Vaibhav lost his first Lok Sabha election in 2019 to the BJP's Gajendra Singh Shekhawat from Jodhpur.

After Barmer-Jaisalmer, all eyes are on Jodhpur, where BJP candidate Shekhawat is facing a neck-and-neck fight with the Congress' Karan Singh Uchiarda.

While Shekhawat is contesting from Jodhpur for the third time after winning the seat in 2014 and 2019, it is the maiden Lok Sabha fight of Karan Singh.

BJP national vice-president and former chief minister Vasundhara Raje remained focused on the Jhalawar-Baran Lok Sabha seat throughout the campaigning phase. Her son and sitting MP Dushyant Singh is contesting this seat against Congress candidate Urmila Jain, a Zila Pramukh and wife of former minister Pramod Jain Bhaya.

In Kota-Bundi, sitting MP and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla is facing a stiff challenge from the Congress candidate Prahlad Gunjal.

The tribal-dominated Banswara seat is witnessing an interesting contest as the Congress pledged its support to Bharat Adivasi Party (BAP) candidate Rajkumar Roat, days after its candidate entered the fray. The Congress' Arvind Damor did not withdraw his nomination and said he would contest the election with "full strength".

The Congress decided to support the BAP because its veteran tribal leader Malviya joined the BJP in February and was given a ticket.

Former Rajasthan Assembly speaker C P Joshi is contesting the Lok Sabha election from Bhilwara as the Congress candidate against the BJP's Damodar Agarwal.

BJP state president Chandra Prakash Joshi is contesting from Chittorgarh for the third time. Former minister Udailal Anjana is the Congress candidate for this seat.