New Delhi: A grenade attack on a polling booth in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district, violence in West Bengal and EVM glitches were reported during the fifth phase of Lok Sabha polls on Monday across seven states, where the average voting percentage on 51 seats stood at 62.56 per cent.
Deputy election commissioner Sandeep Saxena said, “In the entire phase five, for corresponding constituencies in 2014 the turnout was 61.75 per cent and for today’s poll the turnout is 62.56 per cent, as last reported.”
Among the seven states, the highest voter turnout of 74.42 per cent was recorded in seven seats in West Bengal. The lowest turnout of 17.07 per cent was reported in J&K.
Over 57.33 per cent of 2.47 crore eligible people cast their vote in 14 seats in Uttar Pradesh, where political heavyweights like Congress’ Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi and Union ministers Rajnath Singh and Smriti Irani were in the fray.
Prominent voters in the state capital Lucknow included home minister Rajnath Singh, BSP supremo Mayawati, and deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma and BSP general secretary S.C. Misra.
In Rajasthan, 63.78 per cent polling was recorded in 12 seats, while it was 63.88 per cent in seven constituencies in Madhya Pradesh, 57.86 per cent in five seats in Bihar and 63.72 in four seats in Jharkhand.
With Monday’s polling in Rajasthan, voting on all 25 Lok Sabha seats has been completed.
During the day, violence was reported from West Bengal and Jammu and Kashmir. Arjun Singh, BJP candidate in West Bengal’s Barrackpore, alleged that he was attacked by Trinamul Congress workers.
The BJP sought repolling in Barrackpore from where former railway minister and senior TMC leader Dinesh Trivedi, who is also the sitting MP, is contesting.
Bomb explosions were reported from outside a booth at Hingli in Bangaon constituency following a clash between two groups allegedly owing allegiance to the TMC and the BJP. Two persons were injured.
There were reports that a CPI(M) agent was beaten up and driven out of a booth in Arambagh constituency. A presiding officer at a booth in Tarakeswar was removed after one person, allegedly belonging to TMC, was seen casting votes on behalf of others there.
In Jammu and Kashmir, polling took place in Ladakh Lok Sabha constituency and also in Pulwama and Shopian districts of Anantnag Lok Sabha seat.
In Shopian, two polling booths were set on fire. Militants lobbed a grenade towards Rohmoo polling station and set off an explosion at another polling booth in Tral in Pulwama but no one was injured in the two incidents. Barring a few reports of poll boycott and EVM glitches, voting was largely peaceful in Bihar. One person was taken into custody in Saran for damaging an EVM.
“The voting process was delayed by around 30 minutes in six polling stations of Saran, two in Madhubani, one each in Sitamarhi and Muzaffarpur constituencies due to technical glitches in EVMs,” said an official.
Meanwhile, in a development which may send worrying signals within the BJP, senior party leader Ram Madhav told a foreign news agency that the party might fall short of simple majority.
Speaking to the news agency, Mr Madhav said, “If we get 271 seats on our own we will be happy. With NDA we will have a comfortable majority.”
The party will make up for expected losses in the north Indian states it swept in 2014 with new gains in the northeast, as well as in West Bengal and Odisha, Mr Madhav said.
The NDA government will pursue pro-growth policies if it returns to power as it has not shifted from a focus on economic reforms to one based on populist cash handouts, he said.
The conservative forecast by Mr Madhav, who is the BJP’s national general secretary, is far below what other party leaders, including finance minister Arun Jaitley and party president Amit Shah, have publicly claimed.
