New Delhi: Over 60 per cent polling was reported till 5 pm in the second phase of Lok Sabha elections covering 88 seats across 13 states amid complaints of EVM glitches and bogus voting in some booths in Kerala and West Bengal.
Voters in some villages of Uttar Pradesh’s Mathura, Rajasthan’s Banswara and Maharashtra’s Parbhani boycotted polls over various issues but were persuaded by authorities to cast their franchise.
Polling for the second stage of the seven-phase elections started at 7 am and was to continue till 6 pm. Several states are experiencing intense heat conditions.
Election officials said the highest voting percentage was recorded in Tripura which registered 77.53 per cent polling till 5 pm, while the lowest turnout was in Uttar Pradesh at 52.74 per cent.
Polling is being held in all 20 seats of Kerala, 14 of the 28 seats in Karnataka, 13 seats in Rajasthan, 8 seats each in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, 6 seats in Madhya Pradesh, 5 seats each in Assam and Bihar, 3 seats each in Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, and 1 seat each in Manipur, Tripura and Jammu and Kashmir.
Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar and actor-turned-politician Arun Govil, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar’s brother DK Suresh (Cong), and former Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy (JDS) are among the key candidates while BJP’s Hema Malini, Om Birla and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat seeking a hat-trick of wins from their respective constituencies.
Stressing on the importance of each vote, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and party leader Rahul Gandhi issued impassioned appeals asking people to step out and exercise their franchise in the second phase of the Lok Sabha election.
In Kerala, the turnout was 63.97 per cent. The election process, held amid tight security arrangements, was primarily incident free except for instances of bogus voting and breakdowns of electronic voting machines (EVMs) being reported in some booths of the state. Such incidents resulted in delaying the polling process in the affected booths.
One person each reportedly died at Palakkad, Alappuzha and Malappuram after casting their vote and a polling agent died after collapsing at a booth in Kozhikode.
Tripura East Lok Sabha constituency recorded a turnout of 77.53 per cent till 5 pm. Election officials said there were some complaints from a few booths but those were “promptly addressed”.
A jawan of the Madhya Pradesh Special Armed Force deployed on poll duty allegedly committed suicide by shooting himself with his service rifle at a government school where he was stationed in Gariaband district under the Mahasamund seat in Chhattisgarh, where a voter turnout of 72.13 per cent was recorded till 5 pm.
A polling booth at Sivni village in Balod district (Kanker seat) was decorated like a wedding ‘mandap’, with a display of rituals of traditional weddings. Several brides and grooms, dressed in their wedding finery, cast their votes at several polling booths.
In neighbouring Madhya Pradesh, there was a turnout of 54.83 per cent till 5 pm.
An estimated 70.66 per cent of the 77,26,668 voters exercised their franchise till 3 pm in the five parliamentary constituencies of Assam.
In restive Manipur, where polling is being held under high presence of security personnel, the turnout was a high 76.06 per cent.
Till 5 pm, the overall voting percentage in Karnataka was 63.90.
A case was booked against BJP MP and Bangalore South Candidate Tejasvi Surya for allegedly posting a video on a social media platform and soliciting votes on the grounds of religion, the Election Commission said.
Various restaurants in Bangalore were offering free dosas, laddu, coffee and other food items at discounted rates to customers who cast their vote.
A private hospital assisted 41 inpatients cast their vote with the help of city civic body Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). Green corridors were created for the ambulances across constituencies to ensure easy, hassle-free voting.
Some EVMs were destroyed at a polling station in Indiganatha village in Chamarajanagara district of Karnataka during a clash between two groups of people over whether to vote or not. Officials said an FIR is being filed the Election Commission will take a call after getting a detailed report.
A voter turnout of 53.51 per cent was recorded till 3 pm in eight constituencies in Maharashtra, while in Rajasthan, the turnout was 59.19 per cent. Incidents of confrontation between the supporters of the Congress candidate and an independent candidate were reported at a couple of places during polling in Barmer-Jaisalmer Lok Sabha constituency of Rajasthan.
Police said they were looking into the complaints besides some about fake voting from some places.
A voter turnout of 52.74 per cent was recorded till 3 pm in the eight parliamentary constituencies of Uttar Pradesh. Senior citizens dominated the early hours of voting in Noida in the Gautam Buddh Nagar constituency. Some residents’ welfare associations made arrangements for electric vehicles to ferry voters to and from the polling booths.
In Bihar, the turnout was 53.03 per cent, 71.84 per cent in in West Bengal and 67.90 per cent in Jammu and Kashmir.
The Lok Sabha polls are the first major electoral battle in Jammu and Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370 and the bifurcation of the erstwhile state into Union territories — Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh — on August 5, 2019.
The Election Commission registered nearly 300 complaints in West Bengal, mostly related to EVM malfunctioning.
After Friday’s phase, polling will be over in Kerala, Rajasthan and Tripura. In the first phase on April 19, polling was completed in all seats of Tamil Nadu (39), Uttarakhand (5), Arunachal Pradesh (2), Meghalaya (2), Andaman and Nicobar Islands (1), Mizoram (1), Nagaland (1), Puducherry (1), Sikkim (1) and Lakshadweep (1).
The third phase of elections for 94 seats across 12 states and Union territories will be held May 7. Counting will be done June 4.
PTI