LIVE | Lok Sabha polls: 58.34% turnout till 5 pm; violence rocks Bengal

BSP candidate for Ferozepur Lok Sabha seat Surinder Kamboj has been booked for allegedly getting his video recorded while casting his vote and making it public.

Kamboj was filmed by an unidentified person while casting his vote at a polling station in Guruharsahai’s Jiva Rai village.

Ferozepur Deputy Commissioner Rajesh Dhiman said Kamboj made the video public.

A case has been registered against Kamboj and an unidentified person under relevant sections of the Representation of People's Act, 1951 and the Indian Penal Code.

Kamboj is the father of AAP MLA from Jalalabad Jagdeep Singh Goldy Kamboj.

Ninety-two-year-old Khalil Ansari, who is visually impaired, cast his vote for the first time on Saturday during the Lok Sabha elections in Jharkhand’s Sahibganj district.

Ansari, from Badkhori village in Rajmahal parliamentary constituency, voted at booth number 10 of the Upgraded Government Middle School in Mandro, the official added.

Ansari’s name was initially missing from the electoral rolls, a fact discovered by Jharkhand Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) K Ravi Kumar during inspections of Mandro polling stations on April 5.

When Kumar asked Ansari if he was a registered voter, the 92-year-old replied that he had never voted because his name was not on the voter list. Kumar then directed officials to immediately add Ansari’s name in the list.

After casting his vote, Ansari said, “I cast my vote for the first time and I am happy.”

Voting was conducted the fourth time on Saturday at Tashigang, which has been in the record books since 2019 as the highest polling station in the world.

“Highest polling station of India, Tashigang — 72. Altitude — 4,650 metres,” reads a message painted in blue and white on the front wall.

“Swagatam. We heartily welcome all the voters to the world’s highest polling station,” is written in Hindi on the welcome board, adorned with colourful frills.

The tiny village in Himachal Pradesh’s Spiti valley is perched high in the icy Himalayas at a staggering altitude of 15,256 feet. Located near the India-China border, Spiti valley is part of the Mandi Lok Sabha seat, one of the four parliamentary constituencies in Himachal and the second largest in India.

Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is up against the Congress's Vikramaditya Singh from the seat.

The polling station at Tashigang, serving 62 voters from Tashigang and Gete, has been made a model polling booth.

The one-storied polling station has two rooms on each side, recently painted bright yellow.

On Saturday, the entire polling team and the voters donned beautiful traditional Chuba attire.

A lunch was organized for the voters.

They took selfies at a selfie point set up against the backdrop of brown hills and a bright blue sky.

“My vote, my right,” it says, capturing the spirit of democracy in this remote corner of India.

The CPI(M) accused ruling Trinamool Congress workers of intimidating its polling agents and other electoral malpractices in different constituencies during the seventh phase of Lok Sabha elections being held in nine seats in West Bengal on Saturday.

CPI(M) candidates in Jadavpur, Diamond Harbour, Kolkata Dakshin, Dum Dum and Mathurapur alleged that polling agents of the party were facing intimidation and were forced out of the polling booths in some places.

The party alleged that despite the deployment of local police and central forces, incidents of threats and assault were taking place.

CPI(M)’s Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha seat candidate Pratikur Rahaman alleged that the party’s workers and supporters were being intimidated in different places, including Diamond Harbour, Falta and parts of Budge Budge assembly segments.

“I had to shift one of our party workers to hospital after he was badly beaten up for protesting black taping the names of opposition candidates on EVMs,” Rahaman said, pointing fingers at TMC supporters.

Accusing the CPI(M) of making lame excuses, TMC spokesperson Shantanu Sen sought to remind that the Left party does not have any representation in the West Bengal Assembly or the outgoing Lok Sabha from the state.

He claimed that the CPI(M) will come out with similar results on June 4 also, when the counting of votes for the general elections will be held. “Knowing fully well that they will also get a big zero, they are trying to give some lame excuses,” Sen said.

Rahaman also claimed that voters were being intimidated and that false voting was taking place in some places. The Left party’s candidate in the prestigious Kolkata Dakshin constituency, Saira Shah Halim, alleged that false voting was going on in some booths in the constituency.

A CPI(M) party official present at a booth in Ballygunge Assembly segment claimed that their polling agent was forced out. Similar allegations were also made by the CPI(M) in a few places in Basirhat and Dum Dum Lok Sabha constituencies.

In Baranagar Assembly segment, where a by-election is also being held simultaneously, CPI(M) candidate Tanmay Bhattacharya scuffled with local TMC leaders at a booth in BKC College. Police officials intervened and separated them.

CPI(M)’s state secretariat member Samik Lahiri said the party lodged complaints with the Election Commission alleging “mass-scale rigging” in Diamond Harbour constituency. “We have made two complaints to the EC with regard to Diamond Harbour,” Lahiri, a four-term MP from the seat till 2009, said.

He said several other complaints were also lodged with the EC over alleged intimidation of polling agents and false voting in other constituencies where polling was being held on Saturday.