Lok Sabha polls 2019: Voting largely peaceful barring few incidents, says EC

Voting ends in 10 states, confirms Election Commission 

Voting has completely concluded in 10 states, confirmed the Election Commission. "There were 6.87 crore women voters and over 14 lakh differently-abled voters. 1.7 lakh polling stations were present across 20 states and UTs," Deputy Election Commissioner Umesh Sinha said.

State-wise polling percentage below:

Arunachal Pradesh (2 seats) - 66%

Bihar (4 seats) - 50%

Lakshadweep (1 seat) - 66%

Maharashtra (7 seats) - 56%

Meghalaya (2 seats) - 67.16%

Odisha (4 seats) - 68%

Uttar Pradesh (8 seats) - 63.69%

CRPF men returning from polling booth attacked by Naxals in Gadchiroli 

Two security personnel have been injured in an IED blast and firing by naxals in Etapalli of Gadchiroli district when they were returning to the base camp along with the polling party today. The injured jawans are being brought to Nagpur, news agency ANI reported.

Voting ends, state-wise turnout rate till 5 pm released 

Bihar: 50.26%

Telangana: 60.57%

Meghalaya: 62%

Uttar Pradesh: 59.77%

Manipur: 78.20%

Lakshadweep: 65.9%

Assam: 68%

Uttar Pradesh voter turnout till 5 PM:

Ghaziabad - 53%

Bijnor - 61%

Kairana - 60.36%

Baghpat - 60%

Muzaffarnagar - 62%

Meerut - 60%

Gautam Budh Nagar - 57%

Bihar voter turnout till 3 pm:

Aurangabad - 38.5%

Gaya - 44%

Nawada - 43%

Jamui - 41.34%

Visuals from Bihar's Jamui where the EVMs and VVPATs are being taken to the strong room as the polling for the first phase of Lok Sabha Elections has concluded there.

Amid reports of clashes, Andhra Pradesh witnesses 55% voter turnout till 3 pm

Voter turnout till 3 pm:

Andhra Pradesh - 55% 

Arunachal Pradesh - 50.87% 

Sikkim - 55%

Voter turnout till 3 pm in Jammu and Kashmir is 46.17%.

 

Over 45% vote in Uttarakhand till 3 pm

Over 45 per cent voting was recorded till 3 pm for Uttarakhand's five Lok Sabha seats, said an official. "Till 3 pm, the voting percentage was around 46.59 per cent," said Saujanya, Chief Electoral Officer of Uttarakhand.

Voting percentage in Uttar Pradesh: State witnesses 50.86% in 3 pm

Saharanpur saw 54.18% till 3 pm while it was 52.40% in Kairana. Muzaffarnagar saw 50.60% and Bijnor saw 50.80%.
 

Voter turnout till 3 pm in Mizoram is 55.20%, in Tripura West parliamentary constituency is 68.65% and in West Bengal is 69.94%.

Voter turnout till 3 pm in Nagaland is 68%, in Telangana is 48.95%, in Assam is 59.5% & in Meghalaya is 55%.

Visuals from a polling booth in West Bengal's Coochbehar as people queue up to vote.

35.52% voting recorded in J&K (Jammu & Baramulla Lok Sabha seats) till 1 pm. 39.08 % voting recorded in Sikkim Parliamentary constituency, 46.5 % in Mizoram Parliamentary constituency.

Also read: Lok Sabha polls 2019 — TDP worker killed in clashes with YSRCongress in Andhra Pradesh

 

In Jammalamadugu in Kadapa district, tension prevailed in Ponnathota village as YSRCongress and TDP workers indulged in stone-throwing.

In Narsaraopet constituency in Guntur district, YSRCongress leaders alleged TDP men had ransacked a polling station in Yelamanda village and damaged the furniture.

Mohammad Azharuddin, Former cricketer and Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) working president casts his vote at polling booth number 71.

 

World's smallest living woman, Jyoti Amge, casting her vote at a polling station in Nagpur.

TDP leader S Bhaskar Reddy was killed in election-related clashes in Tadipatri town of Anantapur. 

TDP has alleged that YSRCP workers are behind the incident.

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and his wife cast their vote at a polling booth in Siddipet district

Tollywood actors Naga Chaitanya and Samantha arrive at a polling station in Gachibowli, Hyderabad to cast their vote.

Yoga guru Ramdev cast his vote at a polling station in Haridwar, Uttarakhand

Watch: Constituency-wise analysis of first phase Lok Sabha polls

An IED blast triggered by the Naxals reported near a polling booth at Etapalli in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra. 

No injuries reported.

24.66 per cent voting recorded in Jammu & Baramulla parliamentary constituencies while West Bengal (2 seats) recorded  38.08 per cent. 

26.5 per cent polling recorded in Tripura (1 seat) till 11 am.

23.78 per cent polling recorded in Uttarakhand till 11 am; 23.10 in Lakshadweep while 13.7 in Maharashtra (7 seats).  

Andhra records 18 per cent polling till 11 am; Telangana 23 

Telangana recorded 22.84 per cent polling till 11 am while Andhra Pradesh recorded 18 per cent.

Meanwhile, TDP MP Kanakamedala Ravindra Kumar met the Election Commission (EC) in Delhi and complained about EVM malfunctioning in the state. 

TDP's N Chandrababu Naidu in a letter to Chief Election Commissioner demanded repoll in booths where polling did not commence till 9:30 am due to EVM snag.

Clashes erupt between TMC-BJP cadres in Coochbehar’s Dinhata. 

BJP claims their party members were beaten up by TMC men. On the other hand, TMC claims that their men were attacked by BJP cadres, reports WION correspondent Pooja Mehta. 

Around 14 per cent electorate cast their votes in the first couple of hours of polling in the Naxal-hit Bastar Lok Sabha constituency of Chhattisgarh on Thursday.

EVM snags were reported in some places which were being rectified, an election official in the state capital Raipur said.

"Polling in Bastar seat started at 7 am and is going on smoothly. Till 9.30 am, around 14 per cent polling has been registered," he said.

West Bengal recorded 18.12 per cent voter turnout recorded till 9 am, 17.5 per cent in Mizoram, 10.2 per cent in Chhattisgarh and 15.6 per cent in Manipur. 

An estimated 10.2 per cent voters on Thursday exercised their franchise in the first two hours of polling in five parliamentary constituencies in Assam, amid reports of EVM glitches in a few booths and an IED being detected at an oil pipeline, officials said.

The Tezpur, Kaliabor, Jorhat, Dibrugarh and Lakhimpur Lok Sabha constituencies have an electorate of 76,03,458, including 38,65,334 male, 37,37,970 female and 154 of the third gender, who will decide the fate of 41 candidates.

There are reports of EVM glitches in a few booths under Lakhimpur and Kaliabor constituencies, delaying the beginning of polls, an official said, adding, district election offices are looking into the matter.

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, who is the BJP candidate from Maharashtra's Nagpur Lok Sabha seat, cast his vote here on Thursday.

Gadkari arrived at the polling booth at Town Hall in Mahal area along with his family members, including wife and two sons, around 10 am.

After casting his vote, the minister told reporters that he was happy to see people coming out in large numbers to exercise their franchise.

Voter turnout recorded till 9 am 

Telangana has recorded 10.6 per cent voting till 9 am. 5.83 per cent in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, 10.2 per cent in Assam and 13.3 per cent in Arunachal Pradesh. 

Lakshwadweep has recorded 9.83 per cent voter turnout till 9 am. 

Naxals triggered an IED blast on Thursday morning in Chhattisgarh's Narayanpur district in Bastar Lok Sabha constituency where voting is underway, a senior police official said. No casualty was reported in the incident, he said.

Narayanpur comes under the Bastar Lok Sabha seat.

AIMIM chief and Hyderabad MP candidate Asaduddin Owaisi cast his vote at a polling booth in the city. He is a three-time sitting MP from the constituency. 

Jana Sena MLA candidate Madhusudhan Gupta allegedly damaged an EVM machine by throwing it on the floor as he was angry that candidates names weren't displayed properly at Gooty in Ananthapur district. He has been detained.

Election Commission says 1,800 EVMs are malfunctioning in Andhra Pradesh and are being attended to. Meanwhile, queues are getting longer outside polling booths. 

All 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana are going to the polls on Thursday. As many as 443 candidates candidates are in the fray but the key contest is between Telangana Rashtriya Samiti (TRS), Congress and the BJP.

Perhaps for the first time in the history of Indian elections, 12 EVMs will be used in each booth in Nizamabad, where 185 candidates, including more than 170 farmers, are contesting.

In 2014, KCR’s daughter K Kavitha won with a margin of 1,67, 184 votes beating Congress’ Madhu Yakshi Goud and BJP’s Endala Lakshminarayana.

Vote without fear, says YSR Congress Party chief Jagan Mohan Reddy 

YSR Congress Party chief Jagan Mohan Reddy urged his supporters to vote without fear. After casting his vote in Kadapa, he said people are looking for a change. ''I'm very confident, people are looking for a change, vote without fear,'' Jagan said. 

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu and his family members cast their vote for Lok Sabha elections 2019 in Amravati (Image courtesy ANI).

Former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat queues up to vote in Devalchaur, Haldwani. Voting on two parliamentary constituencies in the state is underway.

A man gets his finger inked before casting his vote at a polling station in Majuli, a large river island in the Brahmaputra river, Assam (Image courtesy Reuters).

Eight seats in Uttar Pradesh, seven in Maharashtra, six in Bihar, five in Assam, four in Odisha, two each in Jammu and Kashmir and West Bengal and one seat in Chhattisgarh are also going to polls.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi called upon the people of the country to vote in large numbers. 

In an early morning tweet as voting got underway, Modi said ''I call upon all those whose constituencies are voting in the first phase today to turn out in record numbers and exercise their franchise.'' 

''Voting is our duty and everyone should vote,'' says RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat after casting his vote for the Nagpur parliamentary constituency

The first phase polls get underway today with as many as 91 constituencies whose fate will be decided by voters nationwide. Andhra Pradesh and Telangana will be hosting the largest number of constituencies - 25 and 17 respectively.

Other states going to polls include - Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, J&K, Maharashtra, Nagaland, Odisha, Sikkim, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Telangana, Uttarakhand, West Bengal. Voters in Manipur, Andaman and Lakshadweep will also be exercising their franchise.

Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Telangana, Andaman and Lakshadweep will be completing polling in one phase today. The results, after the end of seven phases, will be declared on May 23rd.

Voting will be underway till 6pm today. 

Voting underway in Andhra Pradesh in first phase.