Kochi: Kerala recorded a polling of 39.26% till 1 pm in the second phase of Lok Sabha polls for 88 seats in 13 states on Friday, media reports said.
There are 2.77 crore to seal the fate of the 194 candidates including Union Ministers Rajeev Chandrashekharan and V Muraleedharan of BJP in Kerala which has strong communist and Congress roots.
The state is witnessing an unprecedented campaign by the rightist BJP by fielding noted actor Suresh Gopi and firebrand leader Shobha Surendran.Key Congress leaders like Rahul Gandhi, Shashi Tharoor, K C Venugopal are also in the fray. Actor-turned-politician Arun Govil, former Karnataka chief minister H D Kumaraswamy (JDS) are among popular contestants.
Hema Malini, Om Birla and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat of BJP are on a hat-trick.Over 16 lakh polling officials have been deployed across 1.67 lakh polling stations.
