Lok Sabha polls: Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman casts vote in Bengaluru

BENGALURU: Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman cast her vote at the BES polling booth in Bengaluru on Friday.

While speaking to ANI, she urged the people from South Bengaluru to come out in large numbers to cast their vote.

"It's nice to see so many people coming here early in the morning to cast their vote, and I want as many people from South Bengaluru to come out and cast their vote. It is clear people want a stable government, they want good policies, progress, and development, and for that sake, people are coming out today and they do want to see Prime Minister Modi continuing his tenure," she told ANI.

Sitharaman also accused the Congress party of targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi as they have no positive agendas to speak about. "Because they (Congress) have no issue on their own in order to say 'this is what we will do for the people of India, take India forward, bring opportunities for the youth, take India in a global leadership role', they have none of these positive agendas to speak about.

So they are constantly hitting at the Prime Minister, they are doing personal attacks, and even worse, they are bringing in things that they cannot implement. So part of this narrative is this property tax business," she said.

While speaking about inheritance tax, she expressed her concern that it would directly impact the middle class and the aspirational class. She also stated that the inheritance tax is convoluted and cannot be supported.

"It directly hits the middle class, it hits the aspirational class. They work hard, the sweat and toil of theirs is saved in small savings here and there, or they buy a house, a dream house, and keep some fixed deposits. All this is going to be exposed to the so-called property tax... absolutely convoluted and this cannot be supported," she said.

Karnataka is voting on 14 seats today in the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections.

According to the Election Commission of India, voting began at 7 am on Friday in 88 constituencies across 13 states and union territories for the second phase of the Lok Sabha polls 2024.

The Lok Sabha election is being held in seven phases till June 1 and votes will be counted on June 4.

Initially, 89 constituencies were scheduled to go to polls today. However, the EC later announced that the voting in Madhya Pradesh's Betul would not take place during the second phase due to the death of a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate. There are 8.08 crore male and 7.8 crore female voters among the electorates who will decide the fate of candidates.

As many as 5,929 third-gender electors will also exercise their franchise in the second phase of polls. The first phase of voting for the seven-phased Lok Sabha election, the world's largest electoral exercise, was held on April 19 in 102 constituencies across 21 states and UTs. According to the Election Commission, the voter turnout registered was over 62 per cent. The third phase election will be held on May 7.