Lok Sabha Polls 2019: 67.84 per cent vote in 2nd phase

At least 67.84% voters turned up at the polling stations as 95 constituencies in 11 States and one Union Territory went to the polls in the second phase of polling for the Lok Sabha elections on Thursday.

The Election Commission (EC) officials in New Delhi, however, said that the turnout percentage would go up when the final reports in all polling stations would come in. The Lok Sabha constituencies, which went to the polls in the second phase, had registered an average turnout of 69.62% during the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

The 91 constituencies, where polling was held in the first phase on April 11 last, had recorded a 69.43% turnout.

The EC set up nearly 1.78 lakh polling stations for over 15.52 crore voters to exercise franchise and decide the fate of altogether 1596 candidates.

Sudeep Jain, Deputy Election Commissioner, said that only 0.371% of the Ballot Units of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), 0.40% of the Control Units and 1.45% of the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) devices deployed for polls in 95 constituencies had to be replaced after they developed glitches and malfunctioned.

The reports of the EVMs being damaged by miscreants came in from two polling stations located in Inner Manipur constituency of Manipur and Uttar Dinajpur constituency of West Bengal respectively, said Jain.

The constituencies, which went to polls in the second phase, included 14 of the total 28 parliamentary constituencies in Karnataka. The polling for the remaining Lok Sabha seats from the state will take place in the third phase on April 23.

Five constituencies in Assam, three in Chhattisgarh, two in Jammu and Kashmir, 10 in Maharashtra, one in Manipur and eight in Uttar Pradesh also went to the polls on Thursday. Polling was also held in five constituencies each in Bihar and Odisha, three in West Bengal and one in Union Territory of Puducherry on Thursday.

Thirty-five of the 147 assembly constituencies in Odisha also went to polls on Thursday. The Lok Sabha polls and assembly elections are being held together in the State.

An official deployed by the EC for works related to polling was killed in an attack by ultra-leftist insurgents in Odisha on Wednesday. A 95-year-old man also collapsed and died while waiting in the queue before a polling station in the State on Thursday. Another man was killed in a clash between two political parties in the state, Chandra Bhushan Kumar, Deputy Election Commissioner, said in New Delhi.

A polling official also died in Chhatisgarh after suffering a cardiac arrest. The polling for the by-polls to 18 assembly constituencies in Tamil Nadu was also held along with the Lok Sabha polls on Thursday.

No word on Vellore

The Commission was to hold polling in altogether 97 Lok Sabha constituencies in the second phase. But President Ram Nath Kovind on Tuesday rescinded the election in Vellore in Tamil Nadu after the poll-panel recommended it in the wake of recovery of huge amount of money in the constituency.

Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Umesh Sinha told journalists in New Delhi on Thursday that the poll-panel had not yet decided when the election would be held in Vellore.

The poll-panel deferred polling for the East Tripura parliamentary seat from Thursday to April 23, as it concluded that the prevailing law and order situation in the constituency was not conducive and additional security personnel were required.

The EC is conducting polling in 543 Lok Sabha constituencies in seven phases. While polling was held in altogether 186 constituencies in the first two phases, the remaining 357 will go to polls in the next five phases.