Lucknow, Apr 11 : As the first phase of voting kicked off in the 17th Lok Sabha (LS) election, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati and Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav urged the people to vote in maximum numbers for the construction of a new India.
Mr Adityanath took to twitter to appeal the voters.
“Today is the auspicious start to the ‘Mahakumbh’ of democracy. Just as you took part in the cultural Mahakumbh with great vigour, you must also take a plunge in this Maha Kumbh and ensure your participation in the creation of a new India. It is my appeal to vote in maximum numbers,” he tweeted.
BSP chief Mayawati said in a tweet, “I appeal all the voters to go to their respective polling booths from time to time to cast their votes for making a government of ‘Sarvjan hitay, sarvjan sukhay’ in the interest of the nation and the people.”
Former UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav urged the voters to come and exercise their franchise.
“Today is the first phase of the process of ‘mahaparivartan,’ (major transformation). To make this day historic, all those should come out of their homes and exercise their right who want to protect-make a healthy democracy, strong Constitution and brotherhood for their country and the future of their family. Today the country is calling you,” he tweeted

Udaipur, Apr 11 : A long queue has observed in case of maximum polling stations and voters are awaiting to exercise their franchises as a citizen of largest democratic country in the world.
In the first phase of election, there is casting vote for Tripura West Lok Sabha constituency and the voters are exercising their national duty to elect the MP who will work for next five years in favor of the development of the masses.
Biplab Kumar Deb, CM of Tripura has already given his vote at Udaipur English Medium H.S School under 31 Radhakishorepur assembly constituencies in Gomati District of Tripura and requested to all to exercise their own franchises.
The security arrangement is tight here and there are a good numbers of polling stations which are being managed by women. In the Gomati District of Tripura, a total of six polling stations those are completely women managed polling stations.
The name of women managed polling stations under Gomati districts of Tripura are 30/25 Office of the Dy. Director of Agriculture, Udaipur (E/W) under 30 Bagma (ST) assembly segment, 31/21 Udaipur Girls H.S School(W/W), 31/20 Udaipur Girls H.S School(E/W) and 31/24 Office of the executive engineer (RD) and under 31 Radhakishorepur assembly segment, 32/30 Office of the BDO, Matabari R.D Block under 32 Matabari assembly segment and 33/38 District Institute of Education & Training under 33 Kakraban ? Shalgara (SC) assembly segment.

The oppositions are being accused it that the voters are not able to give their vote properly but the security officers are fully escaping this accused of oppositions.

A mandal parishad member of YSRC was seriously injured when TDP workers allegedly attacked him at a polling station in Eluru city.

Clashes broke out on Thursday between workers of Telugu Desam Party and YSR Congress at various places in Andhra Pradesh even as technical glitches in Electronic Voting Machines hampered the poll process at numerous polling booths as voting got underway for 25 Lok Sabha and 175 Assembly seats.

Amaravati: TDP leader S Bhaskar Reddy was killed in a clash that took place in Tadipatri town of Anantapur. However, the TDP has alleged that YSRCP workers are behind the incident.

Clashes broke out on Thursday between workers of Telugu Desam Party and YSR Congress at various places in Andhra Pradesh even as technical glitches in Electronic Voting Machines hampered the poll process at numerous polling booths as voting got underway for 25 Lok Sabha and 175 Assembly seats.

In Guntakal, former MLA and contesting candidate of Jana Sena Party, Madhusudan Gupta, smashed an EVM in a fit of rage alleging that party symbols were not properly printed on the ballot unit.

He also shouted at the polling personnel on duty. Gupta was immediately taken into police custody. A mandal parishad member of YSRC was seriously injured when TDP workers allegedly attacked him at a polling station in Eluru city.

In Jammalamadugu in Kadapa district, tension prevailed in Ponnathota village as YSRC and TDP workers indulged in stone-throwing.

In Narsaraopet constituency in Guntur district, YSRC leaders alleged TDP men ransacked a polling station in Yelamanda village and damaged the furniture.

Police personnel were also preventing YSRC sympathisers from entering into the polling booth, they alleged.

Minor trouble was also reported at a few other constituencies in Guntur, Prakasam and Anantapuramu districts as well but neither the election authorities nor the police confirmed the reports.

State Chief Electoral Officer Gopal Krishna Dwivedi, however, said polling was going on peacefully across the state.

In a statement, the CEO asked people not to believe in rumours as the poll process was going on peacefully.

He said the technical defects in EVMs, reported from various places, have been rectified.

Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and his family members exercised their franchise at a polling station in Undavalli village in state capital region Amaravati.

His son Nara Lokesh, incidentally, is the TDP candidate from Mangalagiri Assembly segment that covers Undavalli.

Talking to reporters, the Chief Minister referred to technical glitches in EVMs and said he was demanding that ballot papers be re-introduced. “No developed country is using EVMs as they are prone to manipulation. We have hence been demanding that we revert to the ballot paper system,” Naidu said.

YSR Congress president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy cast his vote in his native Pulivendula in Kadapa district, from where he is seeking re-election. “I am very confident that people are looking for a change,” Jagan, who is aspiring for the chief minister’s post, remarked.

Jana Sena president Pawan Kalyan exercised his franchise in Vijayawada. State Chief Secretary L V Subrahmanyam also cast his vote in Vijayawada.

State Chief Electoral Officer Gopal Krishna Dwivedi cast his vote in Tadepalli. Interestingly, the VVPAT machine did not function when Dwivedi voted.

This is the first general election in the state after bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh and creation of Telangana in June 2014.

There are a total of 3,93,45,717 registered voters, including 1,94,62,339 men, 1,98,79,421 women and 3,957 transgenders.

Of the total, 10.15 lakh are first-time voters in the 18-19 age group. As many as 2,118 and 319 candidates are in the fray for 175 Assembly and 25 Lok Sabha seats respectively.

Polling would end at 5 pm in the Left-wing Extremism-affected areas, mostly those bordering Odisha and Chhattisgarh.

Agencies

Electorate of 142 million voters in 20 states will choose their representatives in the first phase of mammoth elections.

Indians are voting in the first phase of mammoth general elections, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking a second term.

The first phase covers an electorate of 142 million voters across 20 states and federal territories, who will decide the fate of 91 candidates. Almost 900 million of India’s 1.3 billion people are eligible to vote.

Raziul Nasir, 53, an accountant at a construction company, said he was worried about his children’s future. “All I want is that people who are spreading hatred should be defeated,” Nasir told media.

Naresh Kumar, a 43-year-old voter in Bishada village of Dadri in Gautam Buddha Nagar constituency, said he wanted the BJP to return. Bishada witnessed India’s first cow-related lynching in 2015 that caused an outcry.

“Modi has done a lot of work,” Kumar, who works for National Thermal Power Corporation in Dadri, told media.

Al Jazeera’s Nadim Asrar, reporting from Noida, a suburb of New Delhi, said voters were turning out slowly.

“There’s a slow but steady trickle of voters at a polling booth in a middle-class neighbourhood of Noida. Security personnel guard the gates of a community centre where the polling is being conducted.”

Eight constituencies in western Uttar Pradesh saw over 11 percent voting until 9am.

India elections: All you need to know

Shailendra Pratap Singh, Additional District Magistrate of Ghaziabad adjoining Noida, told Al Jazeera that the voting is going on smoothly in the constituency. “Generally there is brisk voting either in the morning or between 4 and 6 pm,” he said.

Polls are also being held in the disputed Kashmir region and Chhattisgarh, which have faced armed rebellion.

Modi, 68, is the front-runner but he faces a tough challenge from Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the opposition Congress party, who has attempted to capitalise on the Modi government’s poor record on jobs and rural poverty.

Because of the vastness of India, the election will be held in seven phases from the tea plantations of Darjeeling to the slums of Mumbai to the tropical Andaman Islands, and everywhere in between. The elections will conclude on May 19. Results will be announced on May 23.

Security forces are on high alert due to the perennial threat of violence, with five people, including a local politician, killed in an ambush by suspected Maoist rebels this week.

More than 11 million election officials, including security forces, will be deployed across one million polling stations to conduct “the biggest management event of any kind”.

Modi and his right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept to power in 2014 with their famous promise of “achhe din” (good days), becoming the first party to win an absolute majority in 30 years.

“Nationalism is our inspiration and inclusion and good governance is our mantra,” Modi, whose stern bearded face stares out from ubiquitous posters, said at the launch of his manifesto.

Rahul Gandhi, 48, hoping to become the latest prime minister from Nehru-Gandhi dynasty – and aided by sister Priyanka – has accused Modi of causing a “national disaster”. 

Gandhi’s Congress party has profited from voter dissatisfaction, winning three key state elections in December, chipping into Modi’s core support base in the Hindi-speaking heartland of northern India.

Aljazeera

Both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party candidates are jostling to reach out to the multilingual and multireligious voters in the prestigious Bengaluru Central Lok Sabha constituency, which goes to poll on April 18.

While the incumbent BJP member P C Mohan is seeking to retain the seat for the record third time in a row, Congress candidate Rizwan Arshad is leaving no stone unturned to wrest the seat from the Saffron Party.

Actor Prakash Raj, an independent candidate in the race, is visiting every nook and cranny of the constituency, appealing the voters to ‘think differently’ this time.

However, Mr Mohan, a soft, suave and approachable leader, who has developed the constituency is likely to retain the seat, says Venkatesh, a retired Bank employee.

In the last ten years, the Bengaluru Central Constituency had witnessed a sea change thanks to the inflow of Central funds towards the development of the Road, Railway and other infrastructure projects, which had largely benefitted the constituency, the sitting BJP member stated.

The Modi wave, coupled with co-ordinated efforts of the Sangh pariwar workers, should help the BJP candidate sail through smoothly in the April-18 elections, Ramaprasad a resident of Mahadevapura Assembly constituency told media.

However, the Congress candidate, Rizwan Arshad, who had lost to the BJP candidate narrowly, in the 2014 Lok Sabha seat, exude confidence that ?the situation is different now?.

Rizwan, who is contesting as the Congress and the JD(S) alliance candidate, said, ?Last time I got the party ticket at the last minute, which had also contributed for the loss?.

?This time, with the assurance of the party ticket well in advance, I had managed to reach out to majority of the households in the constituency and it should help me this time? he told media.

The presence of as many as five Congress and the JD(S) MLAs, including the KPCC president Dinesh Gundurao (Gandhinagar) against the three Assembly segments held by the BJP should tilt the balance in favour of the Congress candidate, Abdul Razak, a hawker in Shivajinagar area in the constituency said.

Rizwan, who is also the member of the Karnataka Legislative Council, is, however, facing the dismay of the voters of the Christian community, who also comprise significant number in the Lok Sabha seat.

Two Christian leaders, including former super cop and Lok Sabha member H T Sangliana, had openly expressed their anguish over ignoring the Christians in the state, in giving party ticket, may come in the way to upset the BJP candidate.

The presence of the independent candidate Prakash Raj, is also another worrying factor for the Congress candidate as the latter may dent the voter base of the Congress and benefit the BJP.

If the Congress candidate overcomes the discontent brewing within the Congress and manages to assuage the ‘ feelings of let’ down by the Christian minorities, the possibilities of wresting back the seat to the Congress is bright, a voter in Cantonment area said.

The constituency which goes to poll in the first phase of elections in Karnataka, on April-18, is being contested by as many as 22 candidates, including BJP, Congress and the BSP.

Sumalatha Ambareesh is contesting as an independent candidate while the BJP has decided to not name a candidate and back her in Mandya.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday backed multi-lingual south Indian actress Sumalatha Ambareesh, an Independent in the high-profile Mandya Lok Sabha constituency whom the BJP is supporting to wrest the seat from the JD-S.

“Sumalatha supported her husband and Kannada film star Ambareesh in promoting the native language and its culture for years. I express gratitude to Ambareesh and Sumalatha for their contribution to Kannada,” said Modi in his 35-minute speech in Hindi at a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) public rally in Maharaja College grounds in Mysuru.

Campaigning for the party’s candidates in the old Mysore region, which goes to polls in the second phase on April 18, Modi fondly recalled the rebel star (Ambareesh), who died in Bengaluru on November 24, 2018 at the age of 66.

Though Ambareesh won from the Mandya three times, twice as Congress member and once as Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) member, and was a Cabinet Minister in the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government (2013-16), the ruling ally could not give Sumalatha its ticket to contest, as it has been a JD-S bastion since 2009 general elections.

The JD-S has fielded Nikhil K. — son of state Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and grandson of party supremo H.D. Deve Gowda — this time.

To support 55-year-old Sumalatha, the BJP has not fielded its candidate against her and decided to campaign for her in the high-voltage battle against 29-year-old Nikhil, an upcoming Kannada film star from Bengaluru.

A section of the Kannada film industry is also supporting Sumalatha, and its superstars Darshan and Yash are actively campaigning for her as a gratitude to their hero and guru Ambareesh.

Though the ruling Congress-JD-S alliance partners entered into a pre-poll seat-sharing tie-up to contest in all the 28 Lok Sabha seats across the southern state in the ratio of 21-7, its district leaders and cadres have refused to campaign for JD-S candidates in Mandya, as most of them are also ardent fans of Ambareesh, a native of Mandya and their demigod.

Agencies

Srinagar, Apr 11 (UNI) Normal life was crippled in the Kashmir valley due to a strike called by separatists on Thursday, when people in Baramulla Parliamentary Constituency are casting their votes.
A police official said there were no restrictions in any part of the valley though security forces have been deployed in strength, particularly in north Kashmir, to maintain law and order.

?Three-tire security has been put in place to provide safe and secure environment to voters, who are exercising their franchise to elect their representative from nine candidates contesting from Baramulla Lok Sabha seat,? he said.
Shops and business establishments were closed and traffic was off the road in downtown, civil lines and uptown Srinagar though few private vehicles, particularly two-wheelers, besides three-wheelers, could be seen plying on some routes.
Business and other activities were crippled in main business hubs of the city, including historic Lal Chowk, the nerve-centre of summer capital, Budshah Chowk, Regal Chowk, Maisuma, Hari Singh High Street (HSHS), Batmaloo, Moulana Azad Road, Residency Road and Dalgate.

Roadside vendors, selling vegetables and fruit were seen in the civil lines.
Additional security forces, wearing bullet proof jackets and holding weapons and lathis in their hands, were seen patrolling the streets in Srinagar areas to prevent any untoward incident.

However, some shops and business establishments are open in the uptown.
A total shut down was observed in this and other south Kashmir district and tehsil headquarters, a report from Anantnag said. Educational institutions, tuition and coaching centres are closed.

Business and other activities are remained paralysed. Additional security forces and state police personnel have been deployed to prevent any demonstration.
Shops and business establishments remained closed and traffic was also off the road in north Kashmir districts of Baramulla, Bandipora and Kupwara where polling is taking place today.
Life also remained paralysed in the central Kashmir district of Ganderbal and Badgam with all shops and business establishments shut and traffic off the roads.
The Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) has called for a general strike on Thursday against polls, National Investigation Agency (NIA) action against separatists and ban on civilian traffic twice in a week on Srinagar-Jammu national highway

LS Polls: Notices served on Karnataka Chief Minister and some of his Cabinet Colleagues by the City Police for staging protest in front of IT Commissioner Office

Bengaluru, Apr 11 : Following a complaint from the Information Tax Commissioner Balakrishnan, the City Police have served notice to Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy and to some of his Cabinet colleagues who had staged protest in front of IT Office in protest against Raids recently.
According to Police sources here on Thursday notices had been issued to the Chief Minister, Deputy Chief Minister Dr G Parameshwara, former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah
and others by the Commercial Street Police Station.
Balakrishnan had submitted a complaint to the Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer Sanjeev Kumar, seeking action against those who had staged protest in front of IT Office on Queens Road, without permission.
The Congress and JDS leaders, led by Kumaraswamy, staged protest against the IT officials alleging that the officials allegedly are targeting only their party leaders and supporters during the raids conducted at various locations in the State.
The CEO, Karnataka, after receiving the complaint had directed the Karnataka Police Chief Neelamani Raju to take necessary action, the sources added.

Vijayawada, Apr 11 : Chaos prevailed in Andhra Pradesh over the non-functioning of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) in various polling stations across the state during the voting to 175 Assembly and 25 Lok Sabha Constituencies on Thursday while a party candidate staged a dharna and protested over the delay in polling.

Party Candidates expressed their anger over the way the polling was being conducted. Information received from various districts said that polling delayed for few hours due to non-functioning EVMs.

In the Mangalagiri constituency, where Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu’s Minister Son N Lokesh is contesting, the YSRCP candidate and sitting MLA A Rama Krishna Reddy staged a dharna in protest against the technical snags in EVMs. He squatted at a polling station in protest against the ‘indifferent’ attitude of polling officials.

Talking to media, Reddy said that he suspects a sabotage on non-functioning of EVMs in his constituency. He said that after he staged a sit-in dharna, he was told that EVMs started working. Many EVMs in various polling stations were not working causing delay the beginning pof olling, he said.

Mr.Reddy said that an official told him that there is only one technician to look after over 600 EVMs.

TDP MLC Budda Venkanna staged a dharna at a polling station in Mallikharjuna pet here protesting the technical snags in EVMs. He said that he suspects sabotage in the technical snags in EVMs.

The TDP leaders alleged that hundreds of EVMs were not working leading to inordinate delay for the polling to commence. A TDP delegation led by Varla Ramaiah met CEO Gopal Krishna Dwivedi and demanded re-polling in 157 polling stations, where the polling began delayed by few hours due to technical problem in EVMs.

The TDP leaders alleged that 30 per cent of EVMs in the state break down. Jansena President K Pawan Kalyan told media that he had got information that over 200 EVMs are not working.

Meanwhile, hundreds of voters, who waited in long queues, unmindful of scorching heat, returned without casting vote due to delay in beginning of polling due to EVM glitches.

The voters at Gollapudi, Mylavarm, Ibrahimpatnam, G Konduru and Velagaluru expressed anger over the officials for not arranging tents and at least shade for standing in queues. It is impossible for the women and elderly people to stand in queues for more than half-an-hour in the unbearable scorching heat, YSRCP leaders told media.

Mr Dwivedi in a release here on Thursday said that out of total 45,920 EVMs, technical snags developed in only 372 EVMs. The technical snags were rectified and all the EVMs functioning well and polling is going on smoothly, he added.

Kohima, Apr 11 (UNI) The polling in Nagaland for the lone seat for Lok Sabha and the bye-election for the Aonglenden Assembly Constituency going on smoothly, while the polling percentage was calculated at 11.00 AM at 41pc for the Parliamentary seat.

According to election office sources, the voters were in the queue since polling started at 07.00 AM this morning and as per report reach at the office of the Chief Electoral Officer at Kohima, an approximate 41pc votes were cast throughout the state. There was no untoward incident was reported from any part of the state so far.

For the bye-elections in Aonglenden Assembly Constituency under Mokokchung district, approximately 42pc votes were cast till 11.00 AM and polling was peaceful as per last report reaching in Kohima, sources said.