india

Updated: Apr 12, 2019 12:25 IST

An estimated 93 million people voted on Thursday to choose 91 members of the Lok Sabha in the first phase of a bitterly fought general election, marred by stray incidents of violence, clashes between rival party workers, and complaints of faulty electoral rolls, electronic voting machines (EVM), even not-so-indelible ink.

The voter turnout across 18 states and two Union territories, where 142 million people were eligible to exercise their franchise, averaged 66%, according to a Hindustan Times calculation of individual breakups provided by the Election Commission of India. (ECI).

The figures may be updated because electors were still waiting to cast their votes at many polling booths at 6 pm, the time voting was supposed close. The turnout in the first phase of the 2014 election was 70%.

At least three people died in election-related violence — two in Andhra Pradesh and a teenaged boy in Jammu and Kashmir — but the ECI said polling was largely peaceful.

“We thank the voters for coming out to vote in significant numbers. We would also like to thank the state machinery, security forces and nodal officers in various states for their support to ensure smooth polling,” deputy election commissioner Umesh Sinha said.

The last day of polling in the seven-phase election is May 19, and the counting of votes for all 543 Lok Sabha seats will be taken up and results declared on May 23. A total of nearly 900 million people are eligible to exercise their franchise in the seven-phase general election.

Voter turnout varied from state-to-state on Thursday, a day on which the two principal contestants, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress both voiced confidence that they had set off on the course of victory.

According to the ECI’s estimates, the highest turnout was recorded in Tripura (81.8%) followed by West Bengal (81%). Andhra Pradesh recorded a turnout of 73% and neighbouring Telangana 60%. Turnout was 69%, 60% and 78% , respectively, in Sikkim, Mizoram and Nagaland, in which the elections were concluded in one phase.

In Baramulla in the Kashmir valley and the Jammu region, it was 32.29% and 67.39%.

Voting also took place on Thursday to elect representatives to all 175 assembly seats in Andhra Pradesh, 32 in Sikkim, 57 in Arunachal Pradesh (where the Bharatiya Janata Party has already won three seats unopposed) and 28 of 147 seats in Odisha.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the star campaigner for the BJP, and his principal challenger, Congress president Rahul Gandhi, voiced confidence that their parties would emerge victorious, before polling ended in the first phase.

At an election rally in Silchar in southern Assam, Modi said the mood of the country could be gauged from the size of the crowds at his rallies. “There is a strong wave in favour of us,” he said. “The people of India have made up their mind. The opposition has no way out....These elections will decide which direction will India move,”

At a rally in Bihar, Modi said opposition unity will become a thing of the past once the results of the Lok Sabha elections are declared.

In Uttar Pradesh’s Rae Bareli, where he accompanied his mother and United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi when she filed her nomination papers, Congress president Rahul Gandhi was combative. “There have been many people in Indian history who had the arrogance to believe that they are invincible and bigger than the people of India. Narendra Modi has done nothing for the people of India in the last five years. His invincibility will be in view after the election results.”

Rahul Gandhi was trying to reinforce a comment by Sonia Gandhi when she was asked if Modi was invincible.She had replied: “Not at all, not at all. Don’t forget 2004. (then prime minister, the late Atal Bihari) Vajpayee Ji was invincible, but we won.”

This time around, the BJP has made nationalism and national security its main election plank following the February 14 terrorist attack on a bus carrying Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) troopers that left at least 40 men dead. It was followed by an Indian Air Force strike on a terrorist camp run by the Jaish-e-Mohammed in Pakistan’s Balkot.

The Congress, in it manifesto, has promised a minimum guaranteed income of ~72,000 a year to the poorest 20% of India’s population. It has promised a more liberal political order that would include dropping the sedition law and reviewing the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). It has also put alleged irregularities in the Rafale jet fighter deal (the government has repeatedly denied this) and agrarian distress at the vanguard of its campaign.

In election-related violence on Thursday, two political activists, one each belonging to the Telugu Desam Party and YSR Congress Party, died in clashes in Andhra Pradesh, where polling took place in all 25 Lok Sabha wards simultaneously with the assembly polls. At least two others were injured in clashes between the two parties, which are engaged in a bitter for power in the southern state. In neighbouring Telangana, voting in all 17 Lok Sabha wards was peaceful.

A civilian was killed after security forces fired pellets on protesters after the voting ended in the evening at Mandigam village in Handwara area of Kupwara district in Jammu and Kashmir.

“A 14-15 year-old boy Owais Mir was brought dead to the hospital with pellet injuries in his chest, neck and face,” said Rouf Ahmad, medical superintendent of Handwara hospital.

Meanwhile, amid reports that EVMs had malfunctioned in several parts of the state and delayed polling, Andhra Pradesh chief minister and TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu said he was considering approaching the Supreme Court seeking a directive to the ECI for a voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) of at least 25% of votes cast through the machines.

“I have been advocating the usage of ballot papers instead of EVMs, which can be tampered with. But the Election Commission has not bothered. At least now, it should have a rethink on conducting the polls with ballot papers,” Naidu said.

Naidu alleged that at least 30% of the EVMs did not function and in some places, despite a voter pressing the button in favour of the TDP, the machine was indicating that it was going in favour of the YSRCP.

Chief electoral officer Gopala Krishna Dwivedi himself could not cast his vote at Christianpeta Municipal High School in Tadepalli town of Guntur district for sometime because of a malfunctioning EVM. He said later that only 382 EVMs were found to be trouble-prone and they made up less than 0.5% per cent of the total number deployed in the state. “They were all replaced by our technical teams soon after the complaints were received,” he said.

In Maharashtra, the Congress made about 50 complaints related to malfunctioning of EVMs, VVPAT machines and other technical issues. The state poll body said it had taken cognisance of the complaints, but polling wasn’t stalled at any booth.

The second phase of polls is scheduled for April 18. Notifications for the first five phases of polls have already been issued, while that for the other phases will be published on April 16 and April 22 respectively, an EC spokesperson said.