Elections 2019: Snake inside VVPAT machine holds up polling in Kannur

Representational image

Kannur: An unusual "visitor" in a polling booth in the Kannur Lok Sabha constituency, held up voting for a brief while on Tuesday. A small snake was found inside a VVPAT machine in a booth at Mayyil Kandakkai in the constitutency, which is witnessing heavy polling, triggering panic among officials and voters. However, the reptile was soon removed and voting continued.

The Kannur constituency, where sitting MP P K Sreemathy (CPI-M-LDF), K Surendrdan (Cong-UDF) and C K Padmanabhan (BJP-NDA) are trying their luck, is witnessing brisk polling since the morning. Voting began on Tuesday for 116 Lok Sabha seats, including all constituencies in Gujarat and Kerala, with BJP president Amit Shah, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and several Union ministers among prominent candidates in the fray. About 18.56 crore voters are eligible for voting in the third phase of the elections, for which 2.10 lakh polling booths/stations have been set up. The Election Commission has made elaborate security arrangements.

Besides all seats in Gujarat (26) and Kerala (20), voting will be held in four seats in Assam, five in Bihar, seven in Chhattisgarh, 14 each in Karnataka and Maharashtra, six in Odisha, 10 in Uttar Pradesh, five in West Bengal, two in Goa, and one each in Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu and Tripura. Voting in Tripura East constituency, which was earlier scheduled for April 18, is also being held, as also in a part of the Anantnag Lok Sabha seat in Jammu and Kashmir, where election is being held in three phases.

Voting is also being held in some Assembly constituencies in Odisha, Gujarat and Goa. In the first two phases, election was held to 91 and 96 Lok Sabha seats on April 11 and April 18 respectively. This phase will decide the fate of the heads of the BJP and Congress -- Shah, who replaced L K Advani as the party nominee from Gandhinagar in Gujarat, and Gandhi, who is contesting from Wayanad in Kerala besides his traditional Amethi seat in Uttar Pradesh. Among other prominent candidates in this phase are Union ministers Alphons Kannamthanam (Ernakulam-Kerala), Jaswantsinh Bhabhor (Dahod-Gujarat) and Shripad Naik (North Goa), Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav (Mainpuri-Uttar Pradesh), Congress MP Shashi Tharoor and former Governor and BJP nominee Kummanam Rajasekharan (Thiruvananthapuram-Kerala), and AIUDF chief Badruddin Ajmal (Dhubri-Assam).

Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates