Campaigning for second phase ends, 88 seats are up for grabs on April 26

High-voltage campaign for Lok Sabha election's second phase, with PM Modi's controversial speech on wealth redistribution.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s controversial speech on the Congress party’s plans to “redistribute wealth” was the highlight of the high-voltage campaign for the second phase of the Lok Sabha election which ended on Wednesday.

A total of 88 seats across 13 States are up for grabs on Friday. All 20 seats of Kerala, 14 of the 28 seats in Karnataka, 13 seats in Rajasthan, eight seats each in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, six seats in Madhya Pradesh, five seats each in Assam and Bihar, three seats each in Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, and one seat each in Manipur, Tripura, and Jammu and Kashmir would go to polls.

Voting in Madhya Pradesh’s Betul seat, which was also scheduled on Friday, was shifted to the third phase on May 7 following the death of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate Ashok Balawi.

Some of the prominent leaders in the fray are Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Shashi Tharoor, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar, BJP’s Tejasvi Surya, and actor-turned politicians Hema Malini and Arun Govil.

The BJP has an edge having won 52 out of 88 seats in the last general election. Congress had won in 18 seats. Janata Dal (United) and Shiv Sena had won four each seats each while Muslim League had two wins, and BSP, Communist Party Of India (Marxist), Revolutionary Socialist Party, Kerala Congress (M) and Janata Dal (Secular) one each.

The high point of the campaign was the high-decibel attacks by Mr. Modi on the Congress’s manifesto at a rally in Banswara in Rajasthan.

Mr. Modi alleged on Sunday that the Opposition party was planning to give people’s hard-earned money and valuables to “infiltrators” and “those who have more children”. He claimed that former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had said in a speech in 2006 that Muslims had the first claim on the country’s resources.