December 24, 2024 01:07 am (IST)
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LS: India records moderate to high polling in 7th phase
New Delhi, Apr 30 (IBNS): From moderate to as high voter turnout in states like West Bengal (81 percent) was witnessed on Wednesday as India underwent its seventh phase of elections with 89 parliamentary constituencies across seven states and two union territories going to the hustings.
BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, who is a candidate from Vadodara, had his fate decided on Wednesday even as he faced FIR for violating the Model Code of Conduct.
Modi, who voted at Ranip under Gandhinagar constituency, 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 by Opposition and they complained to the Election Commission.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has directed Gujarat authorities to file a First Information Report (FIR) against Modi for waving party symbol lotus while addressing media.
This comes on a day when voting was 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 were eligible to vote in this round.
West Bengal witnessed the highest turnout since morning in all the nine seats that are going to polls in this round. Till 5 pm, while Howrah recorded 71.92 percent turnout, in Burdwan (Durgapur) it was 81.81 percent and in Burdwan East, it was 83.98 percent. In Bolpur in Birbhum district the polling was also as high as 81.41 percent.
In Uluberia the turnout was 78 percent, in Srirampur 72.57 percent, in Hoogly 80.18 percent and in Arambagh 81.81 percent. Later the percentages shot up to over 80 percent.
Polling in West Bengal was also marked by incidents of stray violence and allegations of booth capturing by the opposition parties. TV footage showed many sustaining injury and even an attack on media. Opposition Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) alleged booth capturing in large scale and they complained to the EC.
In Uttar Pradesh, the overall voter turnout was 54 percent.
About 53.81 percent balloting was recorded in the state of Bihar.
The state of Telangana, meanwhile, registered a high 68 percent till 5 pm with highest turnout recorded at Khammam where 75 per cent votes were polled. Turnout in Hyderabad was much lower than the Telangana average, at 53 percent.
Vadodara in Gujarat witnessed a high voter turnout of 68.06 percent till 5 pm.
According to reports, the state of Punjab registered over 50 percent of balloting.
In this phase, the whole of Gujarat and Punjab voted.
The fates of Congress supremo Sonia Gandhi (Rae Bareli) and BJP stalwarts like L K Advani (Gandhinagar) and Murli Manohar Joshi were decided in this round. BJP president Rajnath Singh is also a candidate in this round from Lucknow.
In Punjab's Amritsar, the battle was 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, which carved out of Andhra Pradesh. Voting was held 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.
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