43 pc turnout in Rae Bareli; 65 TN; 73 WB; 81 Pondy; 48 Deeg

 

NEW DELHI: An estimated 43 per cent voters on Monday exercised their franchise for the Rae Bareli Lok Sabha bypoll where Congress President Sonia Gandhi is seeking re-election.
    
Forty-eight per cent turnout was recorded for the Deeg Assembly bypoll in Rajasthan, the Election Commission said.

 

An estimated 65 per cent of the electorate cast their votes for the Tamil Nadu assembly polls, the EC said.

 

The turnout for the fifth and final phase of the West Bengal assembly polls involving 49 seats was 73 per cent, it said.

 

For 27 assembly constituencies in Pondicherry, the turnout was 81 per cent, the EC said.

RAE BARELI: "By and large, polling was peaceful," returning officer-cum-district magistrate Jitendra Kumar said.

A Samajwadi Party worker was injured in a firing incident during polling for the Lok Sabha bye-election here, allegedly by supporters of his political opponents.

 

Jaishanker Vajpayee, a member of SP's state executive committee, received gunshot injuries near a polling station in Amrawa, police said.

 

He was sent to hospital, they added.

 

Snags in electronic voting machines were reported at some places but they were rectified soon, sources said.

 

People in certain areas in the Sadar assembly segment of the constituency complained that their names were missing from the voters list.

 

Polling began at 7 am on Monday, amid tight security measures in the prestigious constituency from where Congress President Sonia Gandhi is seeking re-election.
    
Around 13.60 lakh voters will decide the fate of 16 candidates.

 

Besides Gandhi, others in the fray include Vinay Katiyar (Bharatiya Janata Party), Raj Kumar Chaudhary (Samajwadi Party) and Prabha Singh Lodhi (Apna Dal).

 

Gandhi's election agent and daughter Priyanka visited a temple and offered prayers before polling began.

 

To ensure free and fair polling, the constituency has been divided into five super zones, 11 zones and 85 sectors.
    
Of the over 2100 polling stations, 300 booths have been declared sensitive and 360 hyper-sensitive, where central paramilitary forces have been deployed.

 

The by-election is being held as the seat fell vacant following the resignation of Gandhi in the wake of the office of profit controversy.
    
CHENNAI: Amid unprecedented security, polling began on a brisk note at 7 am, with people turning up in large numbers in the city and other parts of the state to beat the searing heat.
  
"Polling is by and large peaceful, barring few minor incidents," Chief Electoral Officer Naresh Gupta told newspersons at the Secretariat.

 

Over 4.63 crore electorate are expected to cast their votes till 5 pm in the single phase polling, to decide the electoral fortunes of 2,586 candidates, including 160 women, in the fray.
  
Heavyweights, including Chief Minister and AIADMK General Secretary J Jayalalithaa (Andipatti), DMK President M Karunanidhi (Chepauk), DMK Deputy General Secretary M K Stalin (Thousand Lights), actor Vijayakanth (Vriddhachalam) and several state ministers are in the fray. 
  
Karunanidhi, who remained unbeaten in the last 10 elections, is contesting the elections for the record eleventh time, seeking re-election from Chepauk for the third successive term. 
  
In the city, polling began on a brisk note with people forming long queues from 7 am. At a number of polling stations, men outnumbered women voters.

 

Teenagers, who were voting for the first time, turned up at the polling stations with enthusiasm writ large on their faces. Women, attired in their best, came to the polling stations in groups.

 

Jayalalithaa, Karunanidhi, Union Ministers Dayanidhi Maran and G K Vasan, actor and Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam leader Vijayakanth, Napoleon, Sarathkumar, and S V Sekar were among the early voters.

 

Jayalalithaa, accompanied by close friend Sasikala, voted at a polling station at Stella Mary's College while Karunanidhi and family members, including Stalin, exercised their franchise at Gopalapuram, coming under Thousand Lights constituency, where Stalin was seeking re-election.

 

Jayalalithaa was clad in a green sari, her lucky and favourite colour.
  
Actor Sarathkumar, accompanied by his actor wife Radhika cast his vote at Kottivakkam,  hile Vijayakanth, who is seeking election from Virudhachalam in Cuddalore district, exercised his franchise at Saligram, coming under T Nagar Constituency.

    
Over 100 people protested against the omission of their names from the voters list at a polling booth in Thousand Lights constituency and blocked the vehicle of an Election Commission special officer who had come to pacify them.
    
The protestors said they had voted in the booth in the 2004 Lok Sabha polls and were surprised to find their names deleted.

 

At the booth where Karunanidhi exercised his franchise, the electronic voting machine malfunctioned and officials replaced it, leading to a delay of 20 minutes.
    
Reports from Andipatti constituency, from where Jayalalithaa is contesting, said DMK candidate Seeman allegedly barged into an all-women booth and smashed an electronic voting machine.
    
A complaint had been lodged by the returning officer, police said.

 

KOLKATA: Polling was peaceful and smooth, election officials said.

 

Polling was continuing beyond the deadline of 5 pm in several booths of the six districts.
  
Deputy Election Commissioner Anand Kumar said no untoward incident had been reported from anywhere.
  
'' Polling is peaceful and voters are enthusiastic. We have not received reports of any major incident, '' he said.

 

However, official reports said Border Security Force jawans shot dead one person at Rahugram under Islampur constituency in North Dinajpur district, bordering Bangladesh when he was trying to sneak into Indian territory.

 

Three RSP activists were arrested from Balurghat in South Dinajpore district, while another was arrested from Tapan in Malda district for campaigning for their parties.
  
Voters in one each booth in Manickchak and Ratua assembly constituencies in Malda district have boycotted polling in protest against ''tardy'' development in their areas.

 

Polling is being held for 49 seats in Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar, South and North Dinajpur and Malda districts.

 

Polling had to be suspended in a number of booths following a snag in the electronic voting machines, while voters complained of very slow pace of polling from many areas.

 

Allegations were also received from a sizable number of people that they were not allowed to vote for not possessing photo identity cards even though the Election Commission had recognised them as genuine voters.
  
Polling started on a brisk note since morning. With the weather looking up after last night's squall bringing much needed respite, people from all walks of life, particularly tea garden workers, were seen queuing up in front of several booths to exercise their franchise.

 

 

DEEG (Rajasthan): Polling was by and large incident-free and there were no reports of rigging or booth capturing from any of the 105 polling booths, Bharatpur Superintendent of Police Anand Srivastava, camping in the constituency, said.

Eleven area magistrates and 21 sector magistrates have been posted in the area for the bypoll. The Election Commission has appointed two supervisors in Deeg.

 

The Election Commission reprimanded Rajasthan Irrigation Minister Sanwar Mal Jat for violating the model code of conduct by mixing official and poll related tours in Deeg assembly constituency.
     
The commission had earlier issued a notice to him seeking an explanation on his official visits to Alwar on four occasions last month and subsequent electioneering in Deeg.

 

On going through the explanation given by the minister, and the chief secretary of the state government, the EC took serious view in the matter.
     
The EC pointed out that using of the red light in the vehicle by the minister while campaigning was a gross violation of the standing instructions of the commission.

  
PONDICHERRY: Polling was peaceful with no incidents reported from any region.
  
Polling is being held in 21 constituencies in Pondicherry and six in Karaikal regions in the second and final phase.

 

Though people enthusiastically thronged the polling stations right from the commencement of voting, the process was very slow.

 

Polling has been peaceful, barring an incident in which Congress volunteers entered into an altercation with volunteers of Puducherry Munnetra Congress for canvassing inside a booth at the Government Middle School in Nettapakkam constituency.
  
In another incident, an agent of PMC candidate K Lakshminarayanan was cautioned for using the car permitted to be used by the candidate. Police impounded the vehicle for some time.
  
The election will decide the fate of 199 candidates, including three former chief ministers and PMC founder leader P Kannan.
  
Polling in Mahe, Palloor and Yanam constituencies were held in the first phase on May 3.