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The Bharatiya Janata Party urged the Election Commission to order the presence of central armed police forces in West Bengal till the Model Code of Conduct period ends, as it expressed concern that the state's ruling Trinamool Congrees may target a section of voters after polling is over.
BJP leader and Union minister Nirmala Sitharaman told reporters that elections in six of the nine seats, which have undergone elections on Sunday, were marred by violence.
Citing media reports and other feedback, she said BJP candidates have been attacked and accused TMC workers of not letting voters, who are opposed to the Mamata Banerjee-led party, enter polling booths.
The MCC will remain in force till May 27, according to the EC.The counting of votes is due on May 23.
"The Election Commission should take cognisance of it. Since Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has been openly talking about revenge, TMC workers have been beating up people and we are afraid that they will start targeting voters after the polls are over. The central armed police forces should be there till the end of the Model Code of Conduct," she said.
Sitharaman was joined by nominated Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Dasgupta who said, "In West Bengal, the violence unleashed by the TMC as part of its 'badla' strategy won't end." "Central forces must remain in the state as long as the Model Code is in operation till end-May,"
Two election officials deputed at different polling booths in Uttar Pradesh died on duty, officials said.
Rajaram was a 56-year-old polling officer of booth number 381 at Prathmik Vidhyalay Madhopur in Pipraich area under the Gorakhpur Lok Sabha seat, assistant election officer JN Maurya said..
He was rushed to Pipraich community health centre where he was declared dead.
In the Bansgaon parliamentary constituency, Vinod Srivastav, deputed at polling booth number 219, died around midnight due to cardiac attack. He was an employee with the sugarcane department.
The bodies have been sent for post-mortem, Maurya said.
With inputs from PTI.
Himachal Pradesh CM Jairam Thakur casts his vote at polling station number 36 in Mandi district. pic.twitter.com/lQsrG66nKx
— ANI (@ANI) May 19, 2019
Madhya Pradesh: Lok Sabha Speaker & BJP leader Sumitra Mahajan casts her vote at a polling booth in Indore. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/mPUmPXFHS2
— ANI (@ANI) May 19, 2019
The All India Trinamool Congress wrote to the Election Commission alleging the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the Himalayan shrine of Kedarnath is a violation of the model code of conduct.
"Even though the election campaign for the last phase of polling for 2019 Lok Sabha is over as long as back on May 17 at 6 p.m, surprisingly Narendra Modi's Kedarnath Yatra is being covered and widely televised for the last two days in all national as well as local media. This is a gross violation of the Model Code of Conduct," Trinamool Congress spokesperson Derek O'Brien said in the letter.
He said the prime minister even announced that the master plan for the Kedarnath Temple is ready and also addressed the public and the media at the temple town. "lt is absolutely unethical and morally incorrect”.
"Every minute detail of his activities during the visit is being widely publicised with an ulterior motive to influence voters directly and/or indirectly. "Modi Modi" chants are also being heard from the background," he said.
The TMC leader said all these moves were well calculated with the "ill intention to influence the voters" on the polling day. It is unfortunate that the poll body has not taken any action against the PM, it added.
"Election Commission, the highest body and the eyes and ears of the democratic process, remains blind and deaf to the gross violation of the MCC. l would request you to take immediate action and stop telecast of such surreptitious and unfair campaign which is also morally wrong," he said.
Modi, who is on a two-day visit to Uttarakhand, reached Kedarnath on Saturday and is expected to be at Badrinath temple on Sunday.
A few polling stations have reported malfunctioning of the EVM.
"We are looking into that. Reserve EVMs are being sent to those polling centres where from we got reports of some machines not functioning properly. Polling there will soon start," the official added.
Polling is currently underway in eight Bihar constituencies. "Polling has been peaceful with no untoward incidents reported from any of these constituencies, so far except initial reports of EVM malfunctioning," official sources said.
As per reports reaching from district headquarters, voting was hampered at few polling stations in Ara, Sasaram, Jehanabad, Pataliputra, Buxar. Official sources said EVM problems have been redressed.
There were reports of technical glitches in EVMs at several places including Ludhiana, Samana and Moga. In Himachal Pradesh, EVM snags delayed voting at nine polling stations. “Voting restarted after the nine faulty EVMs were replaced,” a state election officer said.
With inputs from PTI.
Varanasi— constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi— recorded 10.87 percent polling till 9 am.
In this constituency, 18.54 lakh electorates will cast their votes in 1,819 polling booths, of which 273 are categorised as 'critical'.
Local administration has set up 145 model booths and one pink booth which will be operated only by women. The voter turnout in this ‘holy’ constituency was 58.35 percnt in 2014.
The five assembly segments in this constituency are Rohaniya, Varanasi North, Varanasi South, Varanasi Cantonment and Sevapuri.
Modi's challengers are Congress's Ajay Rai and Samajwadi Party -Bahujan Samaj Party candidate Shalini Yadav. In 2014, Modi had defeated Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal with a margin of 3.37 lakh.
In 2014, Modi received 56.37 percent votes out of the total polled and there was a swing of 25.85 percent votes in his favour from 2009, when the party’s Murli Manohar Joshi had garnered 30.5 percent votes.
In 2009, the SP and the BSP contested separately, their combined vote share stood at 46.6 percent which was more that of the BJP.
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