NewDelhi: Polling for the first phase of the high-pitched Lok Sabha election concluded on Thursday with West Bengal recording a voter turnout of 81 per cent and Bihar 50 per cent. The Election Commission this time, however, did not share the overall polling percentage. India now awaits for the second phase polling scheduled to take place on April 18. Votes for all 543 seats would be counted on May 23 after the end of the seven-phase polling on May 19. An estimated 1.5 crore young voters in the age group of 18-19 years would vote for the first time across the seven phases.
Political parties continued their rallies across the country. PM Modi will address rallies in Karnataka’s Gangavathi and Kerala’s Kozhikode while Congress chief Rahul Gandhi will campaign in Tamil Nadu’s Theni. DMK president M K Stalin is also expected to join Rahul in the Theni rally.
* TMC candidate Mimi Chakraborty receives flak for wearing gloves while shaking hands with people; BJP calls it insult to voters.
* Supreme Court orders all parties to submit details of donors of electoral bonds in sealed covers by May 30.
* Rahul Gandhi is expected to campaign for the Theni Lok Sabha candidate EVKS Elangovan today. DMK president M K Stalin is also expected to attend the campaign.
* Senior Congress leader Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil and NCP’s Vijaysinh Mohite Patil are set to join BJP.
* Supreme Court will today deliver its verdict on plea challenging the validity of electoral bond.
* A video clip of Congress leader Khushbu Sundar slapping a man over alleged misbehaviour during a rally in Bengaluru on Thursday has gone viral on social media.
* Former union minister and Congress leader Shakeel Ahmad might contest from Madhubani parliamentary constituency in the upcoming Lok Sabha election.
* The Election Commission is scrutinising Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks in Maharashtra’s Latur, asking first-time voters to elect those who carried out the Balakot air strike. Addressing a rally in Ausa in Maharashtra’s Latur on April 9, Modi said, “Can your first vote be dedicated to those who carried out the air strike.” Parties allege that Modi’s speech violates the poll code.
“We have received the report. It is under examination,” Deputy Election Commissioner Chandra Bhushan Kumar told news agency. Asked about the observations made by the district election officer, he said that cannot be disclosed.
*NCP chief Sharad Pawar said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has failed to fulfil his 2014 pre-poll promise of recovering black money within 100 days of coming to power. He also criticised the BJP-led NDA government over its failure to clean the river Ganga. “The Prime Minister had promised that if he failed to recover black money in 100 days, he is ready for punishment of hanging in public.
“But the black money has not come out…So what happened to his promise?…Though we are not interested in hanging anyone in public,” he said at a rally in Maharashtra’s Kolhapur.
* Voting across 91 Lok Sabha seats spread over 20 states and Union Territories in the first phase of the seven-phase elections was largely peaceful, barring a few stray incidents, said the Election Commission on Thursday. The highest voting percentage was recorded in Tripura (81.8 per cent) followed by West Bengal (81 per cent). Bihar recorded lowest voting percentage with 50 per cent voters turning out followed by 56 per cent voting in Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh. The officials said that 70.67 per cent voting was recorded in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, 66 per cent in Andhra Pradesh, 60 per cent in Telangana, 57.85 per cent in Uttarakhand, 58 per cent in Jammu and Kashmir, 69 per cent in Sikkim, 60 per cent in Mizoram, 78 per cent in Nagaland, 78.2 per cent in Manipur and 68 per cent in Assam. Uttar Pradesh recorded 63.69 per cent while in Lakshdweep, 66 per cent voteers exercised their franchise and Meghalaya recorded 67.16 polling.
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