Assam: Third phase polling largely peaceful
Guwahati: The third and last phase of the state election in Assam which is underway amidst tight security in 40 constituencies spread across 12 districts Tuesday is largely peaceful despite sporadic incidents of violence and disturbances in some areas, officials said.
There were reports of a clash between two groups of people over some issues at a polling station at Dighaltari lower primary school at Golakganj. Police resorted to lathicharge and firing in the air to control the situation but none was injured, an official said.
West Bengal polls: TMC, BJP candidates attacked at different places, 5 arrested
Arambagh (WB): Police arrested five persons — three members of the TMC and two of the BJP — for their alleged involvement in assaulting TMC’s Sujata Mondal, candidate from Arasmbagh, earlier Tuesday, a police officer said.
Police also said they had launched a search for those who assaulted Papiya Adhikary, BJP candidate from Uluberia (Dakshin) Assembly seat, when she visited Uluberia hospital to call on an injured party candidate.
BJP candidate for Tarakeshwar Swapan Dasgupta was also allegedly abused by TMC supporters while going on a round of polling stations, party sources said.
Mondal, said she was chased and hit on the head by saffron party men, when she was out visiting polling booths in Arandi area of the constituency, after having received reports that voters were not being allowed to exercise franchise.
The attacks were part of a series of clashes that were reported from several parts of Bengal,
Voting peaceful at Bhogdanga, polling station outside Indo- Bangla border fencing
Bhogdanga (Assam): With the hope that the new government of Assam will address their problems, Haleswar Ray on Tuesday voted for the party of his choice at the sole polling station set up outside the Indo-Bangladesh border fencing in the state’s Dhubri district.
Assam elections: 78.94 per cent of 79.19 lakh voters exercised franchise till 5 pm in 40 assembly seats where polling is underway for third and last phase.
West Bengal elections: 77.68 per cent voter turnout recorded till 5 pm in 31 seats where polling is underway for third phase.
Over 68% turnout in phase III of West Bengal polls till 3.00pm
Kolkata: Sporadic violence was reported and some candidates were attacked during the third phase of West Bengal Assembly elections Tuesday. The state recorded a 68.04 per cent voter turnout till 3.00pm in the afternoon, officials said. Voting is underway with strict adherence to COVID-19 protocols in 16 seats in South 24 Parganas district (part II), seven in Howrah (part I) and eight in Hooghly (part I), they said. “Voter turnout of 68.04 per cent was recorded till 3.00pm in 31 seats,” an EC official said.
Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee alleged ‘blatant misuse’ of central forces to ‘influence voters’.
Minority votes slipping out of Mamata Banerjee’s hand: Narendra Modi
Cooch Behar (West Bengal): Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Tuesday that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s appeal to Muslims to vote en bloc for TMC reflects fears that minority votes are slipping out of her hand. The prime minister said a similar appeal to Hindus by his party would have drawn the media’s and Election Commission’s wrath. Narendra Modi also said that ‘Didi’ has problems with anyone sporting a tilak and wearing saffron.
Modi claimed that a BJP wave was blowing across West Bengal. He asserted his party would form the next government. He pointed out that Banerjee’s angry reactions indicate that she has lost the polls.
“Didi recently asked all Muslims to vote en bloc for her. It shows that the Muslim vote bank is slipping out of her hands. Had we said the same thing that all Hindus should unite, everybody would have criticised us. The EC would have sent us notices. We would have been censured,” Modi said while addressing an election rally here.
Taking a dig at Banerjee’s comment, rhetorically questioning whether BJP leaders predicting the party’s victory were Gods or superhumans, Modi said wave in favour of the saffron camp spoke for itself.
“There is no need to trouble God to find out who is losing and who is winning. Janata Janardhana (public), in the form of God, has given their response, it is known which way the wind is blowing,” Modi said. “Didi’s exit is imminent. That is clear after the first two phases of polling,” he asserted.
48.71% votes cast in Kerala
Thiruvananthapuram: Brisk polling was witnessed Tuesday in various places in Kerala with 48.71 percent of 2.74 crore electorate having already cast their vote by noon in the Assembly elections being held under the shadow of COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the soaring temperatures, long queues were seen in various constituencies with men accounting for over 50 per cent of the total votes polled till noon. As many as 46.81 per cent women and 20.06 transgender voters have also exercised their franchise. Taliparamba, Dharmadam, Aroor, Chertala, Wadakkanchery and Karunagapally constituencies reported heavy polling.
A 65-year-old man and a 75-year-old woman standing in the queue to vote at Aranmula in Pathanamthitta district and Chavittuvary in Kottayam respectively collapsed and died.
Will not be intimidated by BJP goons: Mamata Banerjee
Kalchini (West Bengal): West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee claimed Tuesday that BJP activists were forcibly occupying polling booths. She said that they were attacking Trinamool Congress (TMC) members, including party candidates. However, Mamata Banerjee asserted she would not get bogged down by such ‘intimidatory tactics’.
Banerjee was addressing a public meeting here in Alipurduar district. The TMC supremo said her party’s nominee in Arambagh constituency, Sujata Mondal, was chased and hit on head near a polling booth by saffron party workers.
“They have inflicted serious injury on our Scheduled Caste candidate Sujata, when she visited a booth. They also hit another candidate in Khanakul. In Canning East, security forces prevented our nominee Shaukat Mollah from entering a booth. There had been numerous such instances of attack on our candidates, party workers across the state,” Banerjee said.
The CM further stated that she has received at least 100 complaints of assault and violence since morning, and the EC has been duly informed but to no avail.
“Four of our activists have been murdered since the elections began, but no action has been taken. However, you (BJP) cannot terrorise us, intimidate us by such acts,” Banerjee asserted.
Top leaders, movie stars cast their votes in Tamil Nadu
Chennai: Leaders of various political parties, several movie actors and general public voted early Tuesday after the voting started at 7.00am in Tamil Nadu.
Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam, DMK president MK Stalin, PMK Founder S Ramadoss, Congress leader P Chidambaram, DMDK Treasurer Premalatha Vijayakant, NTK leader Seeman, MNM leader Kamal Haasan and others cast their votes.
Similarly, the Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo, who is managing the poll show in the state, too cast his vote.
From the movie field Rajinikanth, star couple Ajit Kumar and Shalini, Surya, Karthi, Sivakumar too cast their votes.
Speaking to reporters after voting, Stalin said ‘people were casting their votes enthusiastically and the May 2 result will be great’.
Brisk polling was witnessed in the 234 Assembly constituencies in Tamil Nadu. A total of 88,937 polling booths are there in the state and over 1,59,165 electronic voting machines have been deployed.
Similarly, voting began for the lone Kanniyakumari Lok Sabha seat where bypoll is being held simultaneously.
Brisk polling in Kerala
Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala recorded 16.07 per cent voting in the first two hours across 140 constituencies during the Assembly elections Tuesday. Serpentine queues were seen at several booths across the state as polling began at 7.00am. While a voter standing in the queue in Aranmula collapsed and died, there have been reports of malfunctioning of EVMs in some places.
Talking to reporters after casting his vote, Chief Minister Pinayari Vijayan expressed confidence that the ruling CPI(M)- led LDF would be voted back to power. He is contesting from the Dharmadam in Kannur district. “I have full faith in the people, who are with the Left,” Vijayan said. He adding the front would secure more seats than it had won in the 2016 Assembly polls.
The turnout was moderate in both West Bengal and Assam. West Bengal recorded 14.62 per cent voter turnout recorded till 9.00am while for Assam the figure was 12.83 per cent.
First casualty
Goghat (West Bengal): The wife of a BJP supporter was allegedly killed in West Bengal’s Hooghly district. The incident happened hours before polling began in the area, police said Tuesday. The woman was killed at around 11.00pm night as she tried to protect her husband from four miscreants who had barged into the house. In the process Madhavi Adak was severely injured. Her family alleged that the Trinamool Congress was behind the incident, a charge denied by the ruling party.
“The woman tried to resist the attackers and was beaten up, following which she died. The miscreants then escaped,” a police officer said. The BJP has lodged a complaint at the local police station in connection with the incident, he said.
Modi urges people to vote in large numbers
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged Tuesday people to vote in large numbers in the Assembly elections in Assam, Kerala, Pondicherry, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. It should be stated here that Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry are voting Tuesday in single-phase assembly elections.
“Elections are taking place in Assam, Kerala, Pondicherry, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. I request the people in these places to vote in record numbers, particularly the young voters,” the prime minister tweeted.
Modi also tweeted in Bengali, Assamese, Tamil and Malayalam, urging voters in the four states and the Union Territory of Pondicherry to vote in large numbers and strengthen the festival of democracy.
New Delhi: Over 20 crore people from Assam, Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry are voting in a mammoth electoral exercise Tuesday. For the last three states, this is the first and only phase of polling. It is Assam’s third and final phase. However, in West Bengal five more phases will follow.
205 candidates in fray
Kolkata: Polling began at 7.00am Tuesday for 31 seats in the third phase of the West Bengal Assembly elections amid tight security, officials said. Voting is underway with strict adherence to COVID-19 protocols in 16 seats in South 24 Parganas district (part II), seven in Howrah (part I) and eight in Hooghly (part I), they informed. Long queues were seen outside polling stations, where voting will continue till 6.30pm.
Over 78.5 lakh voters are eligible to exercise their franchise to decide the fate of 205 candidates. Among the star candidates contesting in this phase of the elections are BJP leader Swapan Dasgupta, West Bengal minister Ashima Patra and CPI(M) leader Kanti Ganguly.
The Election Commission has imposed prohibitory orders under Section 144 of CrPC in all the constituencies, declaring them as ‘sensitive’.
Tight security arrangements have been made to ensure peaceful voting. A total of 618 companies of central forces have been deployed to guard 10,871 polling stations.
EVM seized from house of TMC candidate in West Bengal
Kolkata: Amid the ongoing Phase 3 polls of the West Bengal Assembly Election 2021 Tuesday, electronic voting machines (EVMs) and VVPATs were found at a residence of a Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader in Uluberia in Howrah district. The Election Commission of India (ECI) has said that the EVM and VVPAT machines were taken to the TMC leader’s residence by Tapan Sarkar, a sector officer in charge of elections, as per a report by news agency ‘ANI’. The sector officer has been suspended and the reserved EVM machine has been removed from the election process.
Final phase of Assam poll begins
Guwahati: Polling for 40 seats in the final phase of the Assembly elections in Assam began at 7.00am on Tuesday to decide the fate of 337 candidates, including senior minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, his five cabinet colleagues and state BJP president Ranjeet Kumar Dass. People wearing masks and maintaining social distance were seen queuing outside polling stations even before the voting began in the 40 constituencies spread over 12 districts.
In several polling stations, the first voter and senior citizens were greeted with a ‘gamosa’ (traditional towel) and, in some cases, with saplings.
Elections are being held amid tight security as 320 companies of security forces were deployed in the third phase, the highest among all the phases.
Altogether 79,19,641 voters – 40,11,539 men, 39,07,963 women and 139 of the third gender – are entitled to exercise their franchise in 11,401 polling stations.
A direct contest between nominees of the BJP-led NDA and Congress-headed Grand Alliance is on the cards in 20 constituencies while there is a triangular fight, including friendly contests, in the remaining seats with the Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) being considered as the third force.