LS polls LIVE | Phase 2 records 60% voter turnout; Tripura highest at 77.53%

Nearly 60% voter turnout recorded on 13 Lok Sabha seats in Rajasthan till 5 pm

Nearly 60 per cent voter turnout was recorded till 5 pm in 13 Lok Sabha seats of Rajasthan where polling is underway under the second phase on Friday.

Barring a few incidents of confrontation and complaints of fake voting in Barmer-Jaisalmer, the voting is being held peacefully.

According to the official data, 59.19 per cent voter turnout was recorded in 13 constituencies of Barmer-Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Jalore, Chittorgarh, Banswara, Kota-Bundi, Tonk-Sawai Madhopur, Ajmer, Pali, Udaipur, Rajsamand, Kota and Jhalawar-Baran.

At the same time, 73.25 per cent voting took place in the byelection for Bagidora assembly constituency of Banswara district.

The voting in the second phase of Lok Sabha elections is higher than the first phase which 12 seats went to poll on April 19. Voter turnout was 50.27 per cent by 5 pm in the first phase.

Around 2.8 crore voters are eligible to vote in the second phase of the polls.

Voting began at 7 am and was set to continue till 6 pm.

Those who reached the polling booths and standing in queue by 6 pm will be allowed to vote.

Highest voter turnout by 5 pm was recorded in Barmer-Jaisalmer, where 69.79 per cent votes were polled and the voting percentage was 68.71 in Banswara-Dungarpur.

Pali recorded the lowest turnout of 51.75 per cent till 5 pm, according to official data.

Voting percentage in other constituencies till 5 pm stood at 52.38 in Ajmer, 54.67 in Bhilwara, 61.81 in Chittorgarh, 57.75 in Jalore, 65.23 in Jhalawar-Baran, 58.35 in Jodhpur, 65.38 in Kota, 52.17 in Rajsamand, 51.92 in Tonk Sawai-Madhopur and 59.54 in Udaipur.

Enthusiasm was seen among the people who lined up at the polling booths to cast votes.

However, in Banswara, no voter reached the Adibheet polling booth during the initial hours. The locals have certain demands regarding compensation against land acquired for a power plant and have declared to boycott the elections.

The officials said they are trying to convince the voters to exercise their franchise.

In the first two hours of the voting, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, who is contesting from Kota-Bundi, BJP state president C P Joshi contesting from Chittorgarh and Union minister and BJP candidate from Jodhpur Gajendra Singh Shekhawat cast their votes.

Assembly speaker Vasudev Devnani cast his vote in Ajmer while former chief ministers Vasundhara Raje and Ashok Gehlot exercised their franchise in Jhalawar and Jodhpur respectively.

A 108-year-old woman, Bhuri Bai, cast her vote at the Gunjara polling booth in the Kota-Bundi constituency. She was brought to the polling booth in a wheelchair by her family members.

A man, his son and granddaughters, representing three generations, reached a polling station at Sankand in Jalore to cast votes. They also took pictures at the selfie point in the booth.

A groom, Radhe Suthar, cast his vote at Bhadsoda in Chittorgarh before going for his wedding procession. Suthar told reporters that it is important to exercise franchise in a democracy, so he spared time to cast a vote before his marriage function.

Voting for 12 seats in the desert state was held in the first phase on April 19.

The Bagidora assembly seat in Banswara fell vacant after Congress MLA Mahendrajeet Singh Malviya switched over to the BJP. Malviya is contesting the Lok Sabha election from Banswara as a BJP candidate.

Rajasthan has a total of 25 Lok Sabha seats, out of which 12 went to polls in the first phase on April 19 and polling on the remaining 13 seats is underway on Friday. 

53.03% voter turnout recorded in 5 seats of Bihar till 5 pm

A voter turnout of 53.03 per cent was recorded till 5 pm in the five Lok Sabha constituencies in Bihar where polling was underway in the second phase on Friday, officials said.

The polling started at 7 am in Kishanganj, Katihar, Purnia, Bhagalpur and Banka constituencies, and would continue till 6 pm, they said.

Fifty candidates are in the fray in these five seats, and over 93 lakh people are eligible to decide their fate, they added.

Kishanganj recorded a voter turnout of 56.12 per cent, Katihar registered 55.54 per cent, Purnea recorded 55.14 per cent, Bhagalpur registered 47.26 per cent and Banka recorded 49.50 per cent till 5 pm, officials said.

Earlier in the day, speaking to reporters in Lakhisarai, Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Kumar Sinha said, "I urge people to exercise their franchise in large numbers. People must vote for the overall growth of the country as well as Bihar..

Meanwhile, Congress's Kishanganj MP Mohd Javed, who is seeking re-election, filed a police complaint, alleging that his opponents issued a fake statement in his name asking voters to vote in favour of another candidate.

"It was an attempt by my opponents to mislead voters of Kishanganj. I filed a complaint against the suspects last night," he told reporters.

More than 150 companies of paramilitary forces are assisting the state police in ensuring free and fair elections in this phase, officials said.

The polling was underway amid intense heatwave conditions with the mercury shooting past the 40-degrees Celsius mark in most parts of the state.

Arrangements for tents and drinking water have been made at the polling stations, officials said. 

54.83% polling recorded in 6 LS seats in MP till 5 pm

At least 54.83 per cent of voters exercised their franchise till 5 pm in six constituencies in Madhya Pradesh in the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections on Friday, an official said.

The polling began at 7 am and is going on peacefully in six Lok Sabha seats, the state's Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Anupam Rajan told PTI.

Till 5 pm, Hoshangabad recorded a voter turnout of 63.44 per cent, followed by Tikamgarh at 57.19 per cent, Satna at 57.18 per cent, Damoh at 53.66 per cent, Khajuraho at 52.91 per cent and Rewa at 45.02 per cent, he said.

The early voters include Union Minister Prahlad Patel in the Damoh Lok Sabha seat, which he represented in 2019, and Union Minister Virendra Kumar and his wife in the Tikamgarh seat.

Kumar is seeking a fourth term from Tikamgarh and is pitted against Congress' Pankaj Ahirwar.

Voting in the six seats will end at 6 pm, he said.

A total of 12,828 polling booths, including 1,136 run by women, have been set up for 1,1162,460 eligible voters, of whom 58,32,333 are men, 53,29,972 women and 155 from the third gender, the official said.

The highest number of 19 candidates are in the fray in Satna, while the lowest seven candidates were contesting in Tikamgarh.

There are 2,865 sensitive polling booths in the six constituencies spread over 47 assembly segments Madhya Pradesh.

Facilities such as water, medicines and shelter have been provided at all the polling booths, Rajan said.

As many as 223 flying squad teams and 240 static surveillance teams were keeping a close watch on the polling, he said.

State BJP chief V D Sharma is seeking a second term from the Khajuraho seat, where the opposition INDIA bloc is supporting former IAS officer R B Prajapati of the All India Forward Bloc against Sharma after Samajwadi Party candidate Meera Yadav's nomination was rejected.

In the 2014 general elections, Madhya Pradesh recorded a voter turnout of 61.57 per cent, which increased to 71.16 per cent in 2019.

In 2019, the BJP won in 28 of the 29 Lok Sabha constituencies in Madhya Pradesh, while the Congress could only bag the Chhindwara seat.

The third and fourth phases of Lok Sabha polls will be held on May 7 and 13.

70.6% turnout recorded in 5 LS seats in Assam till 5 pm

An estimated 70.6 per cent of 77.26 lakh voters exercised their franchise in five Lok Sabha seats in Assam till 5 pm on Friday, election officials said.

The turnout was expected to increase as those in queue before 5 pm would be allowed to vote, they said.

Polling began at 7 am and no untoward incident was reported so far.

Darrang-Udalguri Lok Sabha seat recorded the highest turnout of 72.9 per cent, followed by Nagaon (71.84), Karimganj (71.12), Diphu (69.62) and Silchar (53.06).

A total of 61 candidates are in the fray in the second phase.

Assam Transport Minister Parimal Suklabaidya is pitted against Surya Kanta Sarkar of Congress in Silchar, while BJP's Amarsing Tisso is contesting against Congress's Joyram Engleng in Diphu.

Nagaon's sitting Congress MP Pradyut Bordoloi is contesting against BJP's Suresh Bora, while Karimganj's BJP MP Kripanath Malla is pitted against Congress's Hafiz Ahmed Rashid Choudhury.

In Darrang-Udalguri, the main contest is between BJP MP Dilip Saikia and former Congress MP Madhab Rajbongshi.

Altogether 77,26,668 voters, including 38,61,559 women and 179 persons of third gender, are eligible to exercise their franchise at 9,133 polling stations.

LS polls concludes in Kerala; voter turnout at 67.27%

Polling in all the 20 Lok Sabha constituencies in Kerala for the 2024 general election concluded at 6 pm on Friday with the state recording a provisional voter turnout of over 67.27 per cent.

Though the official time for polling ended at 6 pm, huge queues were seen outside polling booths across the state and therefore, the final turnout percentage is likely to go up. Tokens were issued to voters waiting in the queues.

The huge queues in some places were due to delays caused by technical glitches and breakdown in the electronic voting machines (EVMs) as well as instances of bogus voting.

In other places, the lines were due to people turning up in large numbers in the last couple of hours to cast their votes.

Kerala had seen a voter turnout of 77.84 per cent in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. 

Over 53% polling till 5 pm in 8 seats of Maharashtra

A voter turnout of 53.51 per cent was recorded till 5 pm in eight constituencies of Maharashtra in the second phase of Lok Sabha elections on Friday, officials said.

Voting was held between 7 am and 6 pm in Akola, Amravati, Buldhana, Wardha and Yavatmal-Washim seats in Vidarbha (eastern Maharashtra) and Hingoli, Nanded and Parbhani constituencies in the central Marathwada region.

Till 5 pm, Wardha recorded 56.66 per cent turnout, Amravati 54.50, Yavatmal-Washim 54.04, Parbhani 53.79, Akola 52.49, Nanded 52.47, Buldhana 52.24 and Hingoli 52.03, election officials said.

No untoward incident was reported during polling in these constituencies and the process went off largely in a peaceful manner, they said.

At Rampuri in Nanded Lok Sabha constituency, a 26-year-old man allegedly damaged an electronic voting machine (EVM) by hitting it with an iron object when he came to cast his vote around 4 pm, a police official said.

He was detained and during his questioning, he told the police that he wanted a pro-farmer and pro-labourer government in power, he said.

According to officials, there were a total of 204 candidates in the fray -- 21 in Buldhana, 15 in Akola, 37 in Amravati, 24 in Wardha, 17 in Yavatmal-Washim, 33 in Hingoli, 23 in Nanded and 34 in Parbhani.

As many as 1.49 crore voters (77,21,374 men, 72,04,106 women and 432 persons from third gender category) were eligible to cast ballots across 16,589 polling centres.

Former chief minister Ashok Chavan, who recently switched over from the Congress to the BJP, voted along with his family members in the initial hours in Nanded.

On April 19, five seats in eastern Vidarbha – Nagpur, Ramtek, Chandrapur, Bhandara-Gondia and Gadchiroli-Chimur – went to polls, registering a voter turnout of 63.70 per cent.

Buldhana, Yavatmal-Washim and Hingoli are seeing a direct contest between the Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena (UBT).

The undivided Shiv Sena contested the last general elections in the state in alliance with the BJP. It split in 2022 after Shinde led a rebellion, toppled the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government and joined hands with the BJP to become the CM.

In Buldhana, sitting Shiv Sena MP Prataprao Jadhav is pitted against Narendra Khedekar of Sena (UBT).

The Shiv Sena has nominated Rajashri Patil in Yavatmal-Washim, dropping sitting MP Bhavana Gawli. Patil is pitted against Sanjay Deshmukh of the Thackeray-led party.

In Hingoli, Rajashtri Patil's husband and sitting MP Hemant Patil was replaced by the Shiv Sena, which gave the ticket to Baburao Kohalikar. The Sena nominee is contesting against Nagesh Patil Ashtikar of Sena (UBT).

In Parbhani, Mahadev Jankar of Rashtriya Samaj Paksha is contesting against MP Sanjay Jadhav, nominated by the Shiv Sena (UBT).

Jankar has been backed by the ruling Mahayuti alliance, comprising BJP, Shiv Shinde Sena and Ajit Pawar-led NCP.

Dr B R Ambedkar's grandson Prakash Ambedkar, who heads the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA), has fielded candidates in seven seats, including himself from Akola. His brother Anandraj Ambedkar is in the fray in Amravati as a Republican Sena nominee.

In Akola, the contest is between Anup Dhotre of BJP and Abhay Patil of Congress, with Prakash Ambedkar as the third candidate.

Amravati is seeing a battle between MP Navneet Rana, now contesting as a BJP nominee, against Balwant Wankhede of Congress. Dinesh Bub is the Prahar Janshakti Party candidate. The Prahar party, which has two legislators in the assembly, is an ally of the ruling coalition.

In Wardha, there is a fight between former Congress MLA Amar Kale, contesting on the symbol of the NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) – "a man blowing turha" (a traditional trumpet) – against BJP MP Ramdas Tadas.

In Nanded, BJP MP Pratap Chikhalikar is pitted against Congress nominee Vasant Chavan.

Maharashtra, which has 48 Lok Sabha seats, the second highest after Uttar Pradesh, will vote in three more phases between May 7 and May 20.

Voters wait in a queue at a polling station to cast their votes for the second phase of Lok Sabha elections at Joya, in Amroha. Photo: PTI 

 

Man detained after damaging EVM at polling booth

A 26-year-old man allegedly damaged an Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) by hitting it with an iron object when he came to cast his vote at a polling booth at Rampuri in Maharashtra's Nanded district on Friday, a police official said.

The police detained the man, who told them that he wanted a pro-farmer and pro-labourer government, he said.

"The man, Bhaiyyasaheb Edke, is a local resident and a registered voter of Rampuri booth. He came to the polling booth to cast his vote, but damaged an EVM with an iron object. He was immediately detained and the voting process continued soon afterwards as the broken machine was replaced with a new one," Nanded Superintendent of Police (SP) Shrikrushna Kokate told PTI.

Police have launched an investigation to know the motive behind his act of damaging the EVM, he said.

"The man says he wants a pro-farmer and pro-labourer government in place. We are trying to find out if he is linked to any political party. He is well-educated and has done courses in law and journalism. He was in Pune for 10 months before he returned to his village," the SP added. 

Stars of Kannada film industry descend to cast votes for LS polls

The stars of Sandalwood did not disappoint in the election this time around too, as they trooped in and cast their votes on April 26.

Not surprisingly, actors who also double up as political activists came in first. Prakash Raj was one of the early voters to come to the booth as soon as voting started.

“My vote is for the candidate that I have faith in, and secondly for the issues mentioned in the manifesto of the parties. I have voted against the hate and people who are dividing the country. I have voted for a good representative from my constituency,” Raj told PTI Videos after casting his vote at St Joseph Indian High School which falls under Bengaluru Central constituency.

Actor Darshan, who was seen campaigning for Mandya Congress candidate, Venkataramane Gowda, popularly known as Star Chandru, cast his vote in Rajarajeshwari Nagar, which is part of Bengaluru Rural constituency. He however rushed back as soon as he cast his vote and declined to comment.

Actor and politician Upendra, who started his own political outfit, Uttama Prajaakeeya Party, was seen in Kathiriguppe (Bengaluru South). “Vote for the country, for the state, for our children… It’s a very important day for democracy, everybody should respect this day. Everybody should vote, especially youngsters and first-time voters. On an average, 70% vote in Bengaluru. If the rest 30% vote too, then it will be a true democracy,” he told presspersons after voting.

Actor Kiccha Sudeep, who canvassed for the BJP during the Karnataka Assembly elections, decided to keep away from hustings this time.

However, he was among the early voters at Bengaluru South’s JP Nagar.

“It is a big day. Voting is a hope, not an assurance. The problems are rising in our country. Now, the request should not be for people to come out to vote but for the political leaders for whom we are voting,” he said while leaving the booth.

Meanwhile, actor Ganesh was spotted standing in a long queue with his wife Shilpa Ganesh at his assigned booth in Rajarajeshwari Nagar.

“It doesn’t matter if the queue is long and one must wait for some time. One must vote without fail since it’s also a responsibility bestowed upon every citizen of the country,” he told the waiting reporters.

The first family of Kannada film industry was also among the early voters at Poornaprajna Education Centre in Sadashiva Nagar (Bengaluru North). Actor and producer Raghavendra Rajkumar, his sons and actors Yuva and Vinay Rajkumar as well as Ashwini, wife of late actor Puneeth Rajkumar, were spotted at the booth, casting their votes.

“Voting is not an act of charity; it is a right. I urge all voters to vote for whoever they think can do the most for their people,” said Raghavendra Rajkumar after voting.

Superstar Yash came in with his wife, Radhika Pandit, to cast his vote at Hoskerehali (Bengaluru South) post-noon. After voting, the star said, “The government should do what it is supposed to do and it should let people do what they are doing. I think interference should be less. Empowerment should be done, there are so many things that I expect as a citizen.” Meanwhile, even as actor Dhruva Sarja was telling reporters that if needed, people must go back to their native places where they have registered themselves and vote, superstar Rishab Shetty sent his message from his native place, Dakshina Kannada.

Shetty posted a picture of him flaunting his inked finger on social media, with the caption: “We are proud to be citizens of a democratic country. Also, voting is not only our right but also our responsibility. To build a better society, vote without fail to elect a competent representative. I have voted for a better future for our Karnataka. Have you voted yet?” His brother-in-law and superstar Rakshit Shetty was spotted at a booth in Udupi, which is also part of the 14 constituencies from Karnataka going to polls on April 26.

“Every time there is an election, we go back and see what happened in the last five years and what are we expecting for the next five years. Based on that we select the best leader who can lead us to the dream we have for our country and where we live,” Shetty told PTI Videos after voting.