November 23, 2024 08:01 (IST)
Follow us:
facebook-white sharing button
twitter-white sharing button
instagram-white sharing button
youtube-white sharing button
'Third World War has begun:' Ex-Ukraine military commander-in-chief Valery Zaluzhny | UK-India Free Trade Agreement negotiations to resume in early 2024 | UK can arrest Benjamin Netanyahu if he visits country based on ICC warrant | Centre to send over 10,000 additional soldiers to violence-hit Manipur amid fresh violence | Chhattisgarh: 10 Maoists killed during encounter with security forces in Sukma
Polling underway for India seventh phase elections

Polling underway for India seventh phase elections

| | 30 Apr 2014, 10:41 am
New Delhi, Apr 30 (IBNS) India is undergoing its seventh phase of elections on Wednesday with 89 parliamentary constituencies across seven states and two union territories going to the hustings. BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi also cast his vote in this phase in his home state Gujarat.

Voting is being held in Gujarat, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Jammu and Kashmir and Telangana besides in Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.

A total of 13.83 crore people are eligible to vote in this round.

In this phase the whole of Gujarat and Punjab are voting.

The fates of Congress supremo Sonia Gandhi (Rae Bareli) and BJP stalwarts like L K Advani (Gandhinagar) and Murli Manohar Joshi would also be decided in this round. BJP president Rajnath Singh is also a candidate in this round from from Lucknow.

Narendra Modi, who voted at Ranip under Gandhinagar constitutency, also took a selfie of his inked finger after casting his ballots and waved a lotus sign. His waving of lotus is seen as a violation of model code of conduct and opposition are complaining to the Election Commission.

"I seek forgiveness for not being able to devote enough time here. I could only give 18 hours this time here," he said after voting addressing media.

In Punjab's Amritsar, the battle is between BJP's Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley against former Congress chief minister Amrinder Singh.

This is Jaitley's maiden Lok Sabha contest.

This phase is also crucial for the new state of Telangana carved out of Andhra Pradesh. Voting is on for 17 Lok Sabha seats from the region along with 119 seats for what will be its first assembly. From June 2 Telangana will be a new state.

In West Bengal braving the heat people turned out since morning to vote in nine seats of the total 42 that are going to polls on Wednesday. Till 9 am, the turnout was more than 25 percent in Bengal.

This phase of polls in West Bengal was preceded by a slanging match between the ruling Trinamool Congress and the BJP with both Mamata Banerjee and her colleagues targetting Modi after the latter accused Mamata of gaining from selling her painting for astronomical price to the now jailed chief of tainted ponzi company Saradha.

Image: Narendra Modi Twitter account

Support Our Journalism

We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism

IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.

Support objective journalism for a small contribution.