Jharkhand on Sunday recorded 31.25 per cent polling till 11 a.m. for four of the 14 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state.
Pic/ANI
Around 21.52 per cent of 1.38 crore voters exercised their franchise in the first four hours of polling in eight Lok Sabha seats of Bihar in the sixth phase on Sunday, election officials said.
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A polling officer was killed at a polling station in a freak incident of firing by a home guard before polling started in Sheohar Lok Sabha seat. A few incidents of malfunctioning of Electronic Voting Machines were reported from various booths, the officials said.
Vaishali recorded the highest voter turnout at 25.50 per cent, followed by 22.50 per cent in East Champaran, 21.80 per cent in West Champaran, 21.50 in Valmikinagar, 21.20 per cent in Sheohar, 21 per cent in Siwan, 20.60 in Gopalganj and 18.30 per cent in Maharajganj. "Polling has been peaceful with no untoward incidents reported from any of these constituencies so far except initial reports of EVM malfunctioning from a few places.
Voting began after rectifying the technical problems," an official said. He said the polling began late - between 30 minutes and 90 minutes - in certain polling stations due to technical problems in EVMs which were rectified. A polling officer was killed at a polling station in Sheohar constituency when a home guard accidentally fired from his rifle while he was cleaning his gun before the start of polls in the morning, police said.
The injured polling officer, identified as Shivendra Kishore, was admitted to a hospital where he died. The home guard was arrested, police said. Prominent candidates whose electoral fate will be decided on Sunday's polling included Union minister Radha Mohan Singh (East Champaran), senior RJD leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh (Vaishali), RJD's Heena Shahab (Siwan) who is the wife of Siwan strongman and former MP Mohammad Shahabuddin, BJP sitting MPs Rama Devi (Sheohar), Janardan Singh Sigriwal (Maharajganj) and Sanjay Jaiswal (West Champaran).
Jharkhand on Sunday recorded 31.25 per cent polling till 11 a.m. for four of the 14 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state.
Giridih recorded 34.43 per cent voter turnout, Dhanbad 29.03, Jamshedpur 29.33 and Singhbhum or Chaibasa 33.24 per cent.
Voting began at 7 a.m. and will end at 4 p.m. Nearly 67 lakh voters are eligible to vote during the day. More than 200 companies of security forces have been deployed at 8,300 polling booths.
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) President Shibu Soren voted in Bokaro.
In this third phase of polling in Jharkhand, there are 67 candidates.
The battle in Giridih is between All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) nominee and state Water Resources Minister Chandraprakash Chowdhary and Jagannath Mahto of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM).
In Dhanbad, P.N. Singh of the BJP is taking on Kirti Azad, the BJP-rebel nominated by the Congress.
In the steel city of Jamshedpur, the contest is between Vidyut Baran Mahto of the BJP and Champai Soren of the JMM. In Singhbhum, Laxman Giluwa of the BJP is pitted against Geeta Koda of the Congress.
A voter turnout of 22.87 per cent was recorded till 11 AM in ten constituencies of Haryana Sunday in the sixth phase of Lok Sabha elections.
Union ministers Rao Inderjit Singh and Krishan Pal Gurjar are among 223 candidates in the fray.
Polling began at 7 am and will continue till 6 pm in 10 parliamentary constituencies which are going to polls in the single phase, officials said.
The poll percentage recorded at 11 am for ten seats was 22.87, Haryana's Joint Chief Electoral Officer, Inder Jeet said. At Hisar (27.17 pc), Bhiwani Mahendergarh (25.24 pc), Sirsa (24.15 pc), Ambala (18.22 ), Kurukshetra (23.81 pc), Sonipat (24.28 pc), Faridabad (22.66 pc) , while it was picking up pace at Rohtak (21.46 pc) and Karnal (20.91 pc).
Gurgaon recorded 23.35 polling percentage during first four hours. Haryana's Chief Electoral Officer Rajiv Ranjan said polling was going on peacefully across the state. Inder Jeet said there were glitches in EVMs at a few booths early in the morning, but these were replaced immediately. Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar was among the early voters in Karnal while Union Minister Gurjar cast his vote in Faridabad. State Congress chief exercised his franchise in Sirsa.
JJP leader Digvijay Chautala, who is contesting from Sonipat, alleged that at booths number 88, 89 and 90 in Jind district, his party symbol (a pair of slippers) were "not clearly visible on EVM machines and some voters have complained to me in this regard".
"This is a serious matter and the Election Commission must look into this," Digvijay said. Enthusiastic voters were seen in several places. A bridegroom went to cast his vote in Mullana in Ambala parliamentary constituency before solemnising his marriage.
At Sirsa and Hisar, the voters queued up since early morning to cast their vote. There were reports of a few centenarians also exercising their franchise in Rohtak district. Haryana's Joint Chief Electoral Officer Inder Jeet said over 1.80 crore people are eligible to vote in the state. Of them, 97,16,516 are male, 83,40,173 female and 207 transgenders.
Visuals from polling booth no. 329- 332 at Sidharth Shiksha Niketan in Siddharthnagar. #LokSabhaElections2019 #Phase6 pic.twitter.com/l06SHtrt2g
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Over one lakh of total voters are physically challenged and special facilities have been provided for them, he said.
An average 28.01 per cent voter turnout was recorded till Sunday noon in eight Lok Sabha seats of Madhya Pradesh, an election official said.
Voting was underway since 7 am in a peaceful manner in Bhopal, Morena, Bhind, Gwalior, Guna, Sagar, Vidisha and Rajgarh constituencies in the third phase of elections in the state, state Chief Electoral Officer V L Kantha Rao said.
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Edited by mid-day online desk with inputs from Agencies
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