New Delhi: Sporadic violence marred the early hours of voting in Srinagar constituency of Jammu and Kashmir, on Thursday. But that was soon amended and voting picked up in J-K.
Polling stations opened on Thursday morning across eight states for the fourth and penultimate round of elections to the Lok Sabha.
A total of 85 constituencies are to elect MPs from Bihar, Haryana, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi.
About 10 crore people will be eligible to vote on Thursday, taking the total number of seats polled since the start of staggered election April 16 to 457.
The Election Commission has set up 129,103 polling centres, to be overseen by 6,50,000 officials.
Among the heavyweights in the fray in this round are External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and former chief ministers Rajnath Singh (Bharatiya Janata Party), Farooq Abdullah (National Conference), Mulayam Singh (Samajwadi Party), Lalu Prasad (Rashtriya Janata Dal).
While only Srinagar constituency will see polling in Jammu and Kashmir, balloting will take place for all 25 seats in Rajasthan, all seven seats in Delhi and all 10 in Haryana.
Four of the 13 Lok Sabha constituencies of Punjab also go to the polls on Thursday along with 18 out of 80 in Uttar Pradesh, three out of 40 in Bihar and 17 out of 42 in West Bengal.
The elections will conclude May 13. The votes will be counted across the country May 16.
HARYANA AND PUNJAB
Polling for the Parliamentary elections began in Haryana and parts of Punjab amid tight security Thursday morning.
All 10 Lok Sabha seats of Haryana and four seats in neighbouring Punjab are going to polls in the fourth phase of the general elections.
People in rural areas of both states could be seen reaching polling stations even before voting began at 0700 hrs IST.
There are 12,894 polling stations in Haryana and 11,978 stations in Punjab. Tight security arrangements were in place since Wednesday.
The four seats of Punjab that go to polls are Bathinda, Sangrur, Patiala and Ferozepur. There are 79 candidates in the fray. The main contest here is between the ruling Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance and the Congress.
In Haryana, 210 candidates, including 14 women, are fighting for 10 parliamentary seats. The main contest here is between the ruling Congress and the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD)-BJP combine.
The Bahujan Samaj Party and the newly floated Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) of former chief minister Bhajan Lal will make the contest triangular in the Gurgaon and Hisar seats respectively.
Bhajan Lal, 78, is himself contesting the Hisar Lok Sabha seat.
Other key candidates in the fray are Ajay Singh Chautala (INLD), industrialist Naveen Jindal (Congress), Deepinder Singh Hooda (Congress) and union ministers Rao Inderjit Singh and Selja (both Congress).
In Punjab, the biggest contest is in Bathinda where Harsimrat Kaur, wife of Akali Dal president and Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal is pitted against Raninder Singh of Congress, the son of former chief minister Amarinder Singh.
Over 52 lakh voters are eligible to cast their vote in these four seats. Nearly 27,000 police personnel and 30,000 poll officials will get the polling conducted through 8,400 electronic voting machines (EVMs) in these seats, Chief Electoral Officer Kusumjit Sidhu said.
Haryana has over 1.2 crore voters, including 5.5 million women voters.
Over 62,200 police personnel, including paramilitary forces, will be on election duty while nearly 64,500 polling officials will get the poll process completed, Haryana chief secretary Dharam Vir said.
DELHI
Voting got off to a quiet start across the national capital's seven parliamentary seats with Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit among the early birds and officials optimistic that the not-so-hot weather would see more people coming out as the day passed.
Polling began at 0700 hrs IST across the 11,348 polling booths in the capital. The number of eligible voters is about 1.109 crore - nearly forty lakh of them in the age group of 18-29.
Till 0900 hrs IST, nine per cent of the voters had exercised their franchise.
"Voting is going very smoothly in all polling station. Weather is not very hot so we can expect a lot of people to turn up. Shades and water have been made available at all the polling stations," Delhi Election Commission chief Satbir Silas Bedi told IANS.
Besides Sonia Gandhi and Dikshit, the first two hours saw a turnout by other high profile voters like Vice President Hamid Ansari, former president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and Sonia Gandhi's daughter and son-in-law Priyanka and Robert Vadra.
"I hope they (the Delhi voters) will be voting for a party and prime minister, who are serious about development and are ready to take the country forward," Priyanka Gandhi said when she came to vote at the Lodhi Estate polling station near her home.
Sonia Gandhi exercised her franchise at the Nirman Bhawan polling station where she was accompanied by Dikshit and Ajay Maken, Congress candidate from the New Delhi constituency.
"Here is the responsibility to go out and vote. I guess the young are very enthusiastic to vote here," Dikshit said while urging the Delhi voters to come out and vote.
Dikshit's son and sitting MP Sandeep Dikshit is contesting from the East Delhi constituency. He cast his vote at the Pandara Road polling station.
"Congress will win on all seats and I'm confident that people in Delhi will come out in large numbers to vote," union minister Maken said.
With low voter turnout in Mumbai making national headlines, SMS messages asking people to vote were doing the rounds.
One such read: "Vote Now! Please cast your vote immediately. Today is not a holiday. Your contribution to India. Don't be a Pappu. Spread this to as many possible."
The capital's constituencies are Chandni Chowk, Northeast Delhi, East Delhi, New Delhi, Northwest Delhi, West Delhi and South Delhi.
A total of 160 candidates are in the fray this time, compared to 129 in the 2004 elections.
The contest is mainly between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
More than 73,000 officials are conducting the voting. To ensure free and fair elections, 56,000 police personnel are deployed across the capital.
A total of 193 polling stations have been identified as sensitive and 32 as hyper-sensitive.
The polling will end at 1700 hrs IST. The votes will be counted May 16.
WEST BENGAL
Long queues were seen outside polling booths in 17 West Bengal Lok Sabha seats where voting began on Thursday morning.
Voters began trickling into polling stations long before the booths opened at 0700 hrs IST to beat the oppressive heat and humidity that is bound to make things difficult for the electors as the day progresses.
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While more than 80 per cent of the voters exercised their franchise in round one of the polls in the state on April 30, over 20 lakh voters in seven southern districts will on Thursday elect their representatives in parliament from among 134 candidates.
The most high profile politician in the fray is External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who is seeking re-election from Jangipur in Murshidabad district. He is pitted against a relative lightweight, Mriganka Bhattacharya of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M).
This edition of the staggered voting process is of interest not just to politicos but also India Inc with Nandigram and Singur, the two areas that made headlines for anti-industrialisation protests, going to the hustings.
National and international poll watchers will be closely following the verdict in the two areas to gauge the relative potency of the twin issues of industrialisation and anti-land acquisition protests by farmers.
In the 2004 election, the CPI-M had won 14 of the 17 seats.
Of West Bengal's 42 seats, 14 went to the polls April 30, while 11 will vote in the last round May 13. Counting will be May 16.
JAMMU AND KASHMIR
A petrol bomb was hurled at a polling station in Jammu and Kashmir's prestigious Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency on Thursday but not much damage was caused. Voter turnout in the first two hours of polling in the seat was poor, officials said.
"The petrol bomb was thrown by unidentified people at the Umer Colony polling station in Lal Bazaar area of Srinagar. But no major damage was caused by this," a police officer said.
Small groups of anti-poll protesters also hurled stones at a few polling stations in the old city areas but were chased away by security men.
The sporadic violence that marred the early hours as voting began on a dull note in Jammu and Kashmir's prestigious Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency. gave way to brisk voting after three hours in the constituency.
Polling stations were thrown open to voters in the 15 assembly segments spread over the three districts of Srinagar, Ganderbal and Badgam at 0700 hrs HRS.
By 1000 hrs IST, the voter turnout was 14 pc in Kangan, 13.9 pc in Charar-e-Sharief, 12.4 pc in Ganderbal, seven pc in Khansahib, 6.5 pc in Badgam, 4.7 pc in Beerwah, three pc in Chadoora, two pc in Sonawar, 1.8 pc in Hazratbal, 1.65 pc in Khanyar, 1.5 pc in Idgah, one pc in Amira Kadal, one pc in Batmaloo, 0.65 pc in Zadibal and 0.5 pc in Habba Kadal.
In the Sonawar assembly segment of Srinagar city, a by-poll for the assembly seat is being held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha elections.
The seat was vacated earlier this year by NC patron and former chief minister Farooq Abdullah prior to his elections to the Rajya Sabha.
The main contest for the assembly seat is between the National Conference (NC) candidate Yasin Shah and Muhammad Ashraf Mir of the People's Democratic Party (PDP).
The fight for the Srinagar parliamentary seat is mainly between Farooq Abdullah and Molvi Ifftekhar Hussain Ansari, senior Shia leader and PDP candidate.
In Srinagar, a petrol bomb was hurled at a polling station but not much damage was caused.
"The petrol bomb was thrown by unidentified people at the Umer Colony polling station in Lal Bazaar area," a police officer said.
Small groups of anti-poll protesters also hurled stones at a few polling stations in the old city areas but were chased away by security men.
The separatists have called for a 50-hour shutdown and poll boycott here.
Authorities have placed all senior separatist leaders, including the hardline Syed Ali Geelani, moderate Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chairman Yasin Malik, under house arrest.
RAJASTHAN
Polling in 25 Lok Sabha seats of Rajasthan began Thursday morning amid tight security.
Voting began at 0700 hrs IST at 42,702 polling booths, including 6 mobile booths in Jaisalmer.
Nine constituencies have been declared sensitive and security measures have been beefed up in these areas, a poll official said.
The sensitive areas include Dausa, Tonk-Sawaimadhopur, Karauli-Dholpur, Alwar, Bharatpur, Jaipur rural, Bhilwara, Jhalawar-Baran and Chittorgarh. Over 86,000 security personnel have been deployed to ensure fair and peaceful elections.
In all, 36 million people, including 1.7 crore women, are eligible to exercise their franchise to decide the fate of 346 candidates.
The main contestants are the Congress party's Sachin Pilot in Ajmer, Girja Vyas in Chittorgarh and C P Joshi in Bhilwara, and the Bharatiya Janata Party's Manvendra Singh in Barmer, Dushyant Singh in Jhalawar and KS Bainsla in Tonk-Sawaimadhopur.
Buta Singh and Meena leader Kirori Lal Meena are fighting from Jalore and Dausa respectively as independents.
The BJP, under the leadership of Vasundhara Raje, is trying to hold on to the 21 seats it had won in the 2004 parliamentary elections.
The Congress is trying to increase its tally from the four seats it won in the last Lok Sabha polls.
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It has always been a two party contest in the state. This time, however, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), rebels and independents are trying to make a dent in the vote bank of both the major parties.
In eight of the 25 constituencies, the contest is three cornered this time.
BIHAR
Voting for the fourth phase of parliamentary elections in three of the 40 constituencies in Bihar began Thursday morning amid heavy security arrangements in view of the threat of Maoist violence.
Long queues of voters were seen at some polling stations here much before the 7 a.m. opening time.
About 4.89 million voters in the three constituencies of state are eligible to exercise their franchise to decide the fate of 57 candidates.
Additional Director General of Police Neelmani said that security has been beefed up as some pockets of rural Patna and Nalanda districts have been identified as Maoist-affected.
"Anti-landmine vehicles have been provided to all the police stations in Maoist affected areas," he said.
This phase is crucial for Railway Minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad as well as Chief Minister and Janata Dal-United (JD-U) chief Nitish Kumar.
In Patliputra, Lalu Prasad is locked in a straight fight with his friend-turned-foe Ranjan Prasad Yadav of the JD-U.
Congress candidate Vijay Kumar Yadav may split some Yadav votes between him and Lalu Prasad, which goes to the JD-U's advantage.
Lalu Prasad is also contesting from Saran constituency that went to the polls April 16.
In Nalanda constituency, the contest will be between JD-U's Kaushalendra Kumar, who was handpicked by Nitish Kumar, and Lok Janshakti Party's Satish Kumar.
Nitish Kumar seems confident of victory in his home constituency and has been canvassing for votes for Kaushalendra Kumar by highlighting all the development work he has carried out as chief minister.
Lalu Prasad's RJD is in alliance with Ram Vilas Paswan's LJP. They are said to be enjoying overwhelming support from the Yadavs, a powerful backward caste, and Paswans, a powerful Dalit caste.
Besides, they also enjoy support of the Muslim community, other backward castes (OBCs) and Dalits.
For the first time, Lalu Prasad and Paswan are trying to win over a section of upper castes, mainly Brahmins and Rajputs, who are said to be unhappy with Nitish Kumar.
Voters in Patna Saheb constituency have to chose between celebrities Shatrughan 'Shotgun' Sinha and Shekhar 'Shaker' Suman.
Shekhar, an actor and TV talk-show "Movers and Shakers" host is contesting for the Congress, while Shatrughan - a Bollywood star and a judge of "The Shotgun Show" TV talent show - is running for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
They have many things in common besides haveing made their mark in the entertainment industry. The two are sons of the soil and both belong to the upper caste of Kayasths, which has over 500,000 votes in the constituency. The similarities give voters a stark choice.
However, Shekhar is a fresher in politics compared to Shatrughan, who has been a minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led BJP government.
UTTAR PRADESH
About 10 per cent voting was recorded in the first two hours of polling in 18 of Uttar Pradesh's 80 Lok Sabha seats in the fourth phase of general elections Thursday morning.
Polling began at 0700 hrs IST at each of the 29,312 polling stations across 20 districts of the state.
By 0900 hrs IST, 11.5 per cent voter turnout - the highest in the state - was recorded in Mathura. It was followed by Ghaziabad at nine per cent.
The lowest turnout was recorded at 7.5 per cent in Mainpuri and Etah.
Prominent among the 314 candidates in the fray are three former chief ministers - Mulayam Singh Yadav, Kalyan Singh and Rajnath Singh.
While Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Rajnath Singh is contesting the polls from Ghaziabad, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav is fighting from Mainpuri and Kalyan Singh is contesting as an independent with SP support from Etah.
As many as 2.56 crore voters have the right to exercise their franchise to decide the fate of the candidates.
In all, 29,649 electronic voting machines (EVMs) are being used for the polling on Thursday.
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