April 17 – Moderate to heavy voting was on Thursday recorded till 6 pm across 12 states covering 121 constituencies in the fifth phase – the biggest of the nine-phased Lok Sabha polls. While there was nearly 79 per cent polling in rural districts of West Bengal, around 68 per cent polling was recorded in Karnataka. The IT hub Bangalore, which has 2 former Infosys honchos contesting, saw just above 50 per cent polling. The Karnataka capital didn’t even have bad weather conditions, pointing to voter apathy in the city’s four seats.
(Nandan Nilakani with his family after voting today)
Nandan Nilekani (Congress), Maneka Gandhi, former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda (JD-S), Union Minister Veerappa Moily (Congress) and Srikant Jena, Supriya Sule and Lalu Prasad’s eldest daughter Misa Bharti figure among the 1,769 candidates in the fifth of the nine-phased elections.
Karnataka:
An estimated 68 per cent of the 4.62 crore voters in Karnataka exercised their franchise on Thursday for 28 Lok Sabha seats in the single-phase polls in which the ruling Congress and BJP are playing for high stakes.
“Polling ended peacefully at 6 p.m. in all the 28 parliamentary constituencies across the state. As per the provisional figures available with us, an average of 60.75 percent voting took place till 6 p.m.,” chief electoral officer A.K. Jha said.
The elections held under the watchful eyes of some 85,000 security personnel, including the central forces, passed off peacefully with no major untoward incident, officials said.
As per Election Commission data, the turnout was around 58 per cent in 2009.
West Bengal: Nearly 79 per cent votes were polled peacefully till 6 pm on Thursday in the first of the five-phase Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal, which will determine the electoral fate of 47 candidates.
“On an average 71.54 per cent of the 60,33,310 voters cast their votes in the first nine hours of polling in the four Lok Sabha constituencies of Coochbehar, Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling in north Bengal,” state’s Chief Electoral Officer Sunil Gupta said.
Around 81 per cent voting was witnessed in 2009.
Maharashtra:
An average of 54.67 per cent electorate cast their vote for 19 Lok Sabha seats during the second phase of polling in Maharashtra today with Kolhapur registering the highest at 54 per cent so far.
Kolhapur is followed by Hatkanangale seat where 52.16 per cent voting was registered.
Uttar Pradesh: Brisk polling is going on in 11 seats in the second phase of Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh with around 62 per cent polling recorded to decide the fate of 150 candidates.
According to EC sources, Nagina witnessed 61.98 per cent polling while Moradabad and Rampur recorded 61.22 per cent and 69.32 per cent polling respectively.
Bihar:
Polling gained momentum as 56 per cent votes were cast in seven parliamentary seats in Bihar.
A maximum 53 per cent voting was recorded in Buxar and Jehanabad Lok Sabha seats each followed by Arrah, Munger and Jehanabad where 47 per cent votes were cast till 4 pm, the office of Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Bihar, said in a statement.
Odisha:
An estimated 70 per cent voters exercised their franchise for the simultaneous second and last phase of the elections to 11 Lok Sabha and 77 assembly constituencies in Odisha on Thursday.
Nayagarh district recorded the highest polling of 62 per cent so far, followed by Keonjhar with 60 per cent and the lowest was over 37 per cent in Khurda district, official sources said.
Jharkhand:
Around 62 per cent of the electorate voted in the second phase of polling in six Lok Sabha seats in Jharkhand amid Maoist violence that left five persons, including 4 CRPF men, injured.
“Around 62 per cent polling was recorded in the second phase for six seats,” Chief Electoral Officer P K Jajoria told a press conference here.
Polling was held in Ranchi, Giridih, Jamshedpur, Singhbhum (ST), Khunti (ST) and Hazaribagh seats under strict security and helicopter surveillance.
Madhya Pradesh:
A total of 51.2 per cent voters have exercised their franchise till 5 pm for 10 Lok Sabha seats during the second phase of polling in Madhya Pradesh amid reports of booth capturing at Pithua and Bakehana in Sagar Lok Sabha seat.
Of those who turned up so far, 58.4 per cent voters are men and 42.8 per cent are women.
Guna recorded the highest turnout at 61.1 per cent so far, followed by Sagar at 59.1 per cent and Rajgarh at 58.95 per cent. The state capital recorded a turnout of 58.42 per cent.
Rajasthan:
First phase of polling in 20 Lok Sabha constituencies ended with 63 per cent voter, the Election Commission said.
“It was mostly incident free poll barring a few incidents of party workers’ altercation and jostling in Bikaner, Ajmer and Jhunjhunu districts outside the booths over voters’ list or supermacy,” DGP-Law and Order Navdeep Singh said.
-India Today
