East states Lok Sabha Election voting LIVE updates: At 4 pm, the overall voter turnout in Assam stood at 60.89 percent, 65.59 percent in West Bengal, 68.94 percent in Manipur and 45 percent in Odisha.
East states Lok Sabha Election voting LATEST updates: At 4 pm, the overall voter turnout in Assam stood at 60.89 percent, 65.59 percent in West Bengal, 68.94 percent in Manipur and 45 percent in Odisha.
Polling came to an abrupt end following skirmishes between some voters and CRPF personnel in Inner Manipur's 6/10 Kyamgei Muslim Makha Leikai polling station. Security personnel said some of the locals pushed CRPF personnel compelling the later to react by firing a few blank shots in the air and commit lathicharge. The voters, in turn, destroyed the EVM.
A Senior BJP delegation comprising of Jay Prakash Majumdar and Shishir Bajoria will meet the West Bengal Election Observer on Thursday at 3 pm on the subject of violence that took place in the second phase of voting in Chopra and other places.
BJP and TMC workers clashed inside a polling booth and broke the EVM machine in Kotgach, Chopra. The district in Darjeeling had also witnessed police lathicharge after miscreants tried to stop people from voting.
A BJP worker’s body was found hanging from a tree in the Senabona village of Purulia district. The deceased has been identified as Sishupal Sahis, son of Yadav Sahis of Sirkabad village in Baghmundi, Purulia.
The West Bengal Police and RAF had to fire tear gas shells to disperse agitators blocking the NH-31 at Chopra in Darjeeling, reports said. The miscreants were trying to stop people from voting in the Lok Sabha election.
Congress candidate from Silchar Sushmita Dev said that it is BJP which is under pressure, and not her. "Congress does not sell false dreams," the sitting MP said.
Meanwhile, Congress' MP and candidate from the Raiganj constituency in 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Deepa Das Munshi told News18: "We saw that 78 percent booths have central force but where the force has not been deployed, our polling agents were not allowed to enter. I am not satisfied." Munshi said that "TMC workers are involved in violence".
Voting was halted at upper Bagdogra's 25/47 booth under the Darjeeling constituency after black tape was found on the BJP symbol on the EVM, India Today reported.
Till 9 am, 17 percent polling was recorded in Darjeeling. Whereas, around 15 percent polling was recorded in Assam's Silchar Lok Sabha constituency. Meanwhile, the overall voting percentage in West Bengal was 12.43 percent by 9 am.
Polling was delayed at several places including in Assam and Odisha due to EVM malfunctioning. Polling is yet to begin at booth number 29/134 at Islampur Hindi FP School of Uttar Dinajpur, in Raiganj parliamentary constituency, as the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) at the booth is not functioning.
The Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machine stopped functioning in one of the polling booths in Assam's Silchar. Meanwhile, in West Bengal, Darjeeling constituency candidate for Communist Party of India (Marxist) Saman Pathak cast his vote at the Margarette School in Siliguri.
From Assam, five seats including Karimganj, Silchar, Autonomous district, Mangaldoi and Nawgong parliamentary constituencies will witness voting. From Odisha, Bargarh, Sundargarh, Bolangir, Kandhamal and Aska Lok Sabha seats will go to polls. Tripura East is the only seat from the north eastern state of Tripura that will go for polling on 18 April. Three Lok Sabha constituencies in West Bengal — Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling and Raiganj will go to the polls in the second phase of elections on Thursday. Out of the two constituencies in Manipur, Inner Manipur will go for polling on 18 April.
A total of 97 parliamentary constituencies spread across 12 states and one Union Territory (UT) will go to polls in the second phase of the ongoing Lok Sabha election 2019 on 18 April.
The states going for polling in phase 2 of the general election are — Assam (5 seats), Bihar (5 seats), Chhattisgarh (3 seats), Jammu and Kashmir (2 seats), Karnataka (14 seats), Maharashtra (10 seats), Manipur (1 seat), Odisha (5 seats), Tamil Nadu (38 seats), Tripura (1 seat), Uttar Pradesh (8 seats), West Bengal (3 seats) and Puducherry (1 seat).
In Tamil Nadu, all 39 seats were supposed to go for polling until the Lok Sabha election to the Vellore constituency was cancelled on Tuesday following cash seizure from a DMK candidate's office a few days ago. The Election Commission of India (EC) took the decision after the district police had filed a complaint against the accused, Vellore DMK candidate Kathir Anand, as well as two party functionaries on the basis of a report from the Income Tax department on 10 April. President Ram Nath Kovind rescinded the notification to hold the election to the seat based on the recommendation made by the poll panel.
The voting time for phase 2 elections will be from 7 am to 6 pm. The eastern states that will go to polling on 18 April — Assam, Manipur, Odisha, Tripura and West Bengal.
In Odisha, over 76.93 lakh voters will decide the fate of 279 candidates, including chief minister Naveen Patnaik and Union minister Jual Oram, in the second phase of polls for five Lok Sabha and 35 Assembly seats. Out of the total electorate of 76,93,123, there are 37,47,493 women voters. At least 605 electors belong to the third gender.
"Preparations for the second phase of polls have reached the final stage and necessary steps have been taken to ensure free, fair and peaceful voting to be held in 9,117 booths," said Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Surendra Kumar.
The ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal and the BJP are the main contenders in the three seats which will see a four-cornered contest between the two parties, the Congress and the Left Front.
The constituencies saw high profile campaigning by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, state chief minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, BJP president Amit Shah and Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, who raised a plethora of issues ranging from corruption to communalism, NRC to chit fund scams and development to security.
TMC has fielded Bijoy Chandra Barman against BJP's Jayanta Kumar Roy in Jalpaiguri constituency, where Moni Kumar Darnal of Congress and Bhagirath Chandra Roy of CPM are also in the fray.
In Darjeeling, TMC nominated Amar Singh Rai will fight against Raju Bisht of BJP, Sankar Malakar of Congress and Saman Pathak of CPM. TMC has nominated Kanhaiyalal Agarwal in Raiganj seat against Md Salim of CPM, Deepa Dasmunshi of Congress and Debashree Chowdhury of BJP.
The Jalpaiguri seat is a reserved one as it has a large population of backward communities who work mainly in the tea gardens. There is also a sizeable number of Nepalis and people of the Rajbangshi community.
