Polling for the fourth phase of the Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh covering 13 parliamentary constituencies began at 7 am on Monday, with the focus on the prestigious Kannauj seat from where SP president Akhilesh Yadav is seeking re-election.
Another prominent candidate in the fray in this round is Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra Teni, who is contesting from Kheri.
Besides Kannauj and Kheri, voting will take place in Shahjahanpur (SC), Dhaurahra, Sitapur, Hardoi (SC), Misrikh (SC), Unnao, Farrukhabad, Etawah (SC), Kanpur, Akbarpur and Bahraich (SC).
A total of 130 candidates are in the poll fray in this phase.
Voting in four Lok Sabha seats in Jharkhand began on Monday morning amid tight security measures, marking the first phase of elections in the eastern state, poll officials said.
Voting started at 7 am in Singhbhum, Lohardaga, Khunti and Palamu seats, and will continue till 5 pm.
Of these, Singhbum, Lohardaga and Khunti are ST-reserved and Palamu is reserved for Scheduled Castes.
In Maoist-affected Singhbhum, polling parties and material were air-dropped in 126 polling stations, they said.
Polling for eight Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal began at 7 am on Monday, amid tight security arrangements, an EC official said.
Baharampur, Krishnanagar, Ranaghat (SC), Bardhaman Purba (SC), Bardhaman-Durgapur, Asansol, Bolpur (SC) and Birbhum seats in the state are going to polls in the fourth phase of the Lok Sabha elections.
Polling for the 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana was underway with voters standing in queues to exercise their franchise on Monday.
After a high decibel campaign, including by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and top leaders of Congress and BRS, polling began at 7 AM and will end by 6 PM, barring a few places where it will conclude two hours earlier.
A private catering agency tasked with providing lunch for over 1,500 officials on election duty, who arrived to collect polling materials for 328 polling stations in Devarakonda Assembly constituency, allegedly failed to prepare an adequate amount of food, leaving many staff members without lunch.
The reception centre was set up at a government junior college and polling materials were dispatched to the staff starting from 7 am.
It is learnt that many officials boarded buses to their assigned routes without having lunch.
The Ahmednagar LS seat has been a BJP bastion for the past 20 years. For the first time, it has been challenged by someone who is well connected at the grassroots level. Known for his simplicity, Lanke is just a phone call away for not just party workers but the common citizen as well.
Although the contest is between Sujay and Lanke, its roots lie in a decades-old feud between Sharad Pawar and the Vikhe Patil clan spanning three generations.
Sujay’s grandfather Balasaheb Vikhe Patil and Sharad Pawar were locked in a tussle over controlling co-operative sugar factories in the region. In 1991, the then Congress leader Sharad Pawar denied Balasaheb the Ahmednagar ticket.
The residents of over 12 border villages that are under dispute between Telangana and Maharastra will be exercising their franchise for the second time in less than a month when they cast votes in the erstwhile Adilabad district on Monday.
These 12 disputed villages come under Adilabad Lok Sabha segment in Telangana and Chandrapur constituency of Maharashtra.
As they have two votes, they get to elect two MPs.
The villagers have already cast their “first” votes to elect the Chandrapur MP on April 19. They will vote for the Adilabad MP candidate of their choice on Monday.
Visakhapatnam
Three highly educated candidates, Botcha Jhansi Lakshmi of YSRC, Mathukumilli Sribharat of the TDP-BJP-JSP alliance, and Pulusu Satyanarayana Reddy of Congress are in the poll fray.
Kadapa
APCC chief YS Sharmila, who is also sister of Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, is making her electoral debut from the LS seat. The seat is set to witness a triangular contest among Sharimla, sitting YSRC MP YS Avinash Reddy and Chadipiralla Bhupesh Subbarami Reddy of the TDP-JSP-BJP combine.
Vijayawada
It is a sibling rivalry in the politically conscious LS segment. Two-time MP Kesineni Srinivas of YSRC has crossed swords with his younger brother Kesineni Sivanath of TDP.
Union Minister and Telangana BJP chief G Kishan Reddy and 'Pushpa' movie fame Allu Arjun were among the early voters in Telangana as polling for the 17 Lok Sabha seats in the state got underway.
AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi, who is seeking re-election from the Hyderabad Lok Sabha constituency and BJP candidate from the seat K Madhavi Latha also cast their votes.
The electoral fate of Union minister Giriraj Singh, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, AIMIM’s Asaduddin Owaisi, and TMC’s firebrand leader Mohua Moitra, actor-turned politician Shatrughan Sinha (TMC)will be decided on Monday.
Giriraj Singh and MoS Home Affairs Nityanand Rai are fighting from Bihar’s Begusarai and Ujiyarpur, respectively, while MoS Ajay Mishra Teni, whose son is an accused in the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence case, is eyeing a hat-trick from the Uttar Pradesh constituency.
Another Union minister, Arjun Munda, is looking to keep his seat from Jharkhand’s Khunti.
A person from Jammu and Kashmir votes for the first time at 103 Amlar B polling station at Tral in Pulwama.
Till 9 am, 11 have cast their votes, all of them being males.
The are has a total of 711 voters out of which 361 are males and 350 are females.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Mukesh Kumar Meena on Monday said three TDP polling agents who were allegedly kidnapped in Chittoor district have been traced and secured.
According to a press release from the CEO's office, the TDP agents were kidnapped from Bokaramanda village in Chittoor district's Sadum mandal, which falls under the Punganuru Assembly constituency.
"TDP district in-charge Jagan Mohan Raju complained that TDP agents belonging to polling stations 188, 189 and 199 were kidnapped by YSRCP leaders while going to the polling stations," said Meena.
BRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao on Monday claimed that regional parties would play a key role post the Lok Sabha elections.
Speaking to reporters after voting at his native village Chintamadaka in Siddipet district in Telangana, he said according to the BJP's own rule, no leader in the party would take up any position after attaining the age of 75.
"Accordingly, Mr Modi has to step down. It is up to the BJP people to think," he told reporters.
"There is nothing like a bloc. Now, the regional parties will be the power in India," he said.
Politically sensitive Ganjam district witnessed incidents of sporadic clashes when polling commenced in Odisha in the fourth phase on Monday.
Chief Electoral Officer, Nikunja Bihari Dhal said there have been some minor skirmishes in the Chikiti area and the police were alerted.
Dhal requested the citizens of Berhampur, Gopalpur and Chhatrapur areas having sizeable urban populations to come out in large numbers and exercise their franchise.
Videos of poll-related minor violence in various places of Ganjam district went viral on the day in which members of two groups can be seen clashing with each other. Group clashes among supporters of the ruling BJD and BJP were reported in areas like Maisanpur.
Scores of displaced Kashmiri Pandits in Jammu were unable to vote on Monday in the fourth phase of Lok Sabha elections due to their names missing from the electoral rolls.
Even as KPs lined up across special polling stations in Jammu amid tight security, several of them had to return without casting their vote.
Telangana recorded an approximate voter turnout of 61.16 per cent till 5 pm on Monday for 17 Lok Sabha seats in the state.
Bhongir Lok Sabha seat witnessed the highest poll percentage of 72. 34 percent, while the lowest voter turnout of 39.17 percent was seen in Hyderabad parliamentary constituency.