63% voting in 2nd phase, highest 79.46% in Tripura

Tribune News Service

Animesh Singh

New Delhi, April 26

A turnout of 63.50 per cent was witnessed in the second phase of voting for the Lok Sabha elections today in 88 seats across 13 states amid complaints of EVM glitches and bogus voting in some booths of Kerala and West Bengal.

Case against Tejasvi

A case was lodged against BJP’s Bangalore South candidate Tejasvi Surya for allegedly posting a video on social media and seeking votes on the grounds of religion, the EC said

The highest polling percentage was 79.46 in Tripura’s lone seat, followed by 77.32 in ethnic violence-hit Manipur. At 54.85 per cent, UP saw the lowest voting. It was 73.62 per cent and 71.84 per cent in the three constituencies each in Chhattisgarh and West Bengal. Assam saw 71.11 per cent voting, as per the Election Commission’s data till 8 pm. The turnout in Maharashtra was 57.83 per cent while it stood at 55.08 per cent in Bihar.

Voters in some villages of Rajasthan’s Banswara and UP’s Mathura boycotted polls over various issues, but were persuaded by authorities to cast their franchise. The polling started at 7 am and continued till 6 pm, with several states seeing intense heat. The polling was held in all 20 seats of Kerala, remaining 13 in Rajasthan, 14 of the 28 in Karnataka, eight seats each in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, six seats in Madhya Pradesh, five seats each in Assam and Bihar, three each in Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, and one seat each in Manipur, Tripura and Jammu and Kashmir. The fates of several key candidates were sealed, among them Congress’ Rahul Gandhi, KC Venugopal, Bhupesh Baghel, Shashi Tharoor and Ashok Gehlot’s son Vaibhav Gehlot. From the BJP, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, Union ministers Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and Rajeev Chandrasekhar, actors Hema Malini and Arun Govil and firebrand youth leader Tejasvi Surya were among those in the fray.

In Kerala, the turnout was 65.91 per cent. The election process, held amid tight security arrangements, was primarily incident free except for instances of bogus voting and breakdowns of electronic voting machines being reported in some booths. One person each reportedly died at Palakkad, Alappuzha and Malappuram after casting their vote and a polling agent died after collapsing at a booth in Kozhikode. (With PTI inputs)

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