Lucknow: Eight constituencies of Uttar Pradesh are going to polls today (Friday) in phase 2 of the 2024 Lok Sabha election, with stage set for a three-cornered contest between the NDA, the INDIA bloc and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). The voter turnout as of 11 AM is 24.31 per cent.

• 11.13 AM: BJP National Spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla cast his vote in Uttar Pradesh's Gautam Budh Nagar.
• 10.27 AM: Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath was confident that the BJP would emerge victorious this time as well. He said: "The excitement within the country and the enthusiasm and optimism among the people for the work of PM Modi in 10 years - going by that we can say that people are blessing the works of the PM and we will receive help in fulfilling the 'Sankalp' of Modi Government within the country. The country wants to see work and PM Modi has given a new direction to the country. His 10-year regime is a golden era in independent India...Today, India is established as a rapidly progressing economy...I believe that when the results come on 4th June, BJP-NDA Government will be formed once again under the leadership of PM Modi."
  
• 10.26 AM: The Chief Electoral Officer of Uttar Pradesh, Navdeep Rinwa said that the voting percentage will be better than 2019. He said: "Arrangements have been made for drinking water, toilets, shade etc. everywhere... Control rooms have been set up at district and state levels for complaints... We have made good arrangements through which we are resolving complaints quickly... Adequate police force and paramilitary forces have been deployed for security"
  
• 10 AM: BJP candidate Mahesh Sharma commented in favour of his party on the day of voting in Gautam Buddh Nagar parliamentary constituency and said: "The people of the state and the nation have made up their minds to make Narendra Modi ji the PM for the third time."
  
• 9.57 AM: BJP leader Dr Satyapal Singh cast his ballot alongside his wife and daughter Charu in his Basauli village. H0e defeated Jayant Choudhary in 2019 and Ch Ajit Singh in 2014 from this seat. RLD received a seat following its partnership with the BJP.
  
• 9.05 AM: Voting disrupted for an hour at a booth in Baghpat: Voting disrupted for over an hour at booth no 222 in Jain inter college of Khekra in Baghpat due to EVM malfunctioning.
  
• 9.09 AM: Suresh Singh casts his vote: Suresh Singh, the Mathura SP candidate, cast his vote. Actor-turned-politician Hema Malini, running for a third term from Mathura on the BJP ticket, and actor-turned-politician Arun Govil, who played Lord Ram in the popular television series "Ramayan," are two of the 91 contenders in this phase of the contest. BJP candidate from Mathura Lok Sabha seat Hema Malini said: "It is going good so far. It is 100% better than the first phase because our party workers are working hard and even I appealed to the people personally to come out and vote and people are coming out in large numbers to vote. I am very sure everything is going to be good... We were anyway going good, but with the 'gathbandhan' we are going to perform twice as well."
  
• 8.26 AM: EVM Malfunction: There has been a report of an EVM malfunction at the Golmandir booth in Sector 4 in Meerut. In the second phase of the Lok Sabha election, polling in eight parliamentary constituencies in Uttar Pradesh started at seven in the morning on Friday. Actor-turned-politician Hema Malini, running for a third term from Mathura on the BJP ticket, and actor-turned-politician Arun Govil, who played Lord Ram in the popular television series "Ramayan," are two of the 91 contenders in this phase of the contest.
  
  Amroha Congress candidate Danish Ali said "PM bajane me mahir hai, pichle Das saalo me desh ka band Baja diya hai"
  
• 7.50 AM: Added personnel for security in the state: In addition to 60 companies of the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) and 239 companies of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs), Uttar Pradesh Police claims that 26,841 inspectors and sub-inspectors, 39,642 head constables and constables, and 28,784 home-guard personnel have been deployed to maintain security.
  
• 7.15 AM: Prime Minister Narendra Modi's special message to voters: In the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections on Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged voters to cast their ballots in historic numbers, arguing that a high voter turnout enhances democracy. Modi urged voters, particularly women and young people, to show up in large numbers at the polls, stating that their vote is their voice. "I'm calling on every voter in their constituency to turn out in record numbers for today's second round of the Lok Sabha elections.
  
• 6.51 AM: Noida prepares itself for the Lok Sabha polls: More than 20,000 workers have been deployed at voting booths in Gautam Buddh Nagar in anticipation of the next Lok Sabha elections, in order to support the 26.75 lakh registered voters, according to officials. The constituency has 1,852 booths, according to District Election Officer Manish Kumar Verma. Of those, 931 are scheduled for live webcasting, and the other booths will be covered by CCTV or videography. Of them, 165 are considered critical, and 164 are considered vulnerable. The constituency includes the assembly segments of Noida, Dadri, Jewar, Khurja, and Sikandrabad. Sikandrabad and Khurja are located in Gautam Buddh Nagar but are part of the Bulandshahr district. The constituency boasts 26,75,148 voters, including 14,50,795 males, 12,22,234 females, and 119 third-gender voters, distributed across the five assembly segments.
  
• 6.13 AM: Officials tighten security ahead of second phase of Lok Sabha Polls: In Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, more security measures have been put in place ahead of the second round of voting, which is set for April 26. Images from Anand Vihar show the increased level of protection.

The eight constituencies are Amroha, Meerut, Baghpat, Ghaziabad, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Bulandshahr, Aligarh and Mathura. There are 1.67 crore voters in these Lok Sabha constituencies, out of which 90.11 lakh are male voters, 77.38 lakh are female voters and 787 are of the third gender. There are a total of 7,797 polling stations and 17,677 polling booths in these constituencies.

Staggered over seven stages, the first phase of the elections held on April 19 for 102 seats across 21 states and Union territories saw a voter turnout of around 65.5 per cent.

Constituencies, key candidates: Prominent among the total of 91 candidates whose future will be decided in the second phase are actors-turned-politician Hema Malini, who is seeking a third term from Mathura; and Arun Govil, who played the role of Lord Rama in the famed TV serial Ramayan. He has been fielded by the saffron party from his native place Meerut.

The Congress' Danish Ali from Amroha, and the BJP's Atul Garg from Ghaziabad and Mahesh Sharma from Gautam Buddha Nagar toured their constituencies seeking the people's support. Altogether, Uttar Pradesh has 80 parliamentary constituencies and polling will take place in all the seven phases of the Lok Sabha election. The BJP's campaign for the second phase was led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

Hectic Campaign Trail: For the Samajwadi Party (SP), its president Akhilesh Yadav led the campaign while Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, BSP president Mayawati and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Jayant Singh were on a hectic campaign trail of these constituencies during the past couple of days. The pitch for the campaign was set by the prime minister at an election rally in Aligarh, a constituency with a sizeable Muslim population, on Monday accusing the Congress of planning to redistribute the people's property if it is voted to power, but stopped short of saying that the wealth would go to Muslims.

Modi accused the opposition Congress and the SP of following a policy of appeasement and yet doing nothing to uplift the socio-economic condition of the community. Yadav hit out at the BJP, saying "Speaking wrong things about a particular community by naming it is an insult to that community spread across the world".

Mayawati, in a poll rally at Bulandshahr the same day, accused the BJP of taking credit for the development of the Noida and Greater Noida region by the BSP while it was in power in the state. The stakes are high for the ruling BJP as among the eight constituencies going to the polls, it had won seven seats in the 2019 elections while the BSP had bagged Amroha.

2019 NOIDA LOK SABHA ELECTIONS: RESULTS
The BJP's Dr. Mahesh Sharma, the sitting MP, had won with an overwhelming mandate of 8,30,812 votes five years prior. However, Satveer Nagar, the BSP's Mahagatbandhan candidate, was his closest competitor, receiving 4,93,890 votes.

Sharma received 2,60,502 votes in the Noida assembly constituency, an increase from 1,81,681 votes in the previous election. In the assembly constituency, Nagar's 62,442 votes and Congressman Dr. Arvind's 20,796 votes combined only accounted for 30% of the BJP candidate's total vote share.

Amroha: The BJP had secured seven out of eight seats in the 2019 elections, while BSP had clinched the Amroha seat. Former BSP candidate Danish Ali, who is currently running for Congress, faced opposition from BSP's Mujahid Hussain and the BJP's Kanwar Singh Tanwar. Ali received 6,01,082 votes in the previous election compared to Tanwar's 5,37,834 votes.

Ghaziabad: Mayawati is fielding Nandkishore Pundhir in an attempt to capitalize on Rajput resentment toward the BJP, which is presently led by General VK Singh (retd). Dolly Sharma has been nominated by Congress.

Meerut: BJP has replaced three-time MP Rajendra Agarwal with actor Arun Govil, known for portraying Lord Ram in the TV serial ‘Ramayan’. The competition heats up as Hindu candidates are put up by both Akhilesh and Mayawati in a constituency where 36% of the population is Muslim. Govil will face opposition from Devvrat Kumar Tyagi and Sunita Verma of the SP.

Mathura: Hema Malini, a two-term sitting member of parliament for the BJP, is running against Chaudhary Suresh Singh of the BSP and OBC leader Mukesh Dhangar of the Congress. Congress looks for votes for change, while the BJP depends on Modi's performance and Hema Milini's popularity. Jayant Chaudhary, the head of the Rashtriya Lok Dal, was defeated by Hema Malini in 2014 and has since joined the saffron side.