Incidents of violence, malfunctioning of EVMs and a high voter turnout marked polling in Andhra Pradesh (AP), where simultaneous elections were held to the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assembly on Thursday.

The eletions to 25 Lok Sabha seats and 175 Assembly seats is seeing a bitter contest between the ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) led by N Chandrababu Naidu and Opposition Leader YS Jaganmohan Reddy of the YSR Congress, with the two national parties — Congress and the BJP pushed to the sidelines.

Pawan Kalyan’s Jana Sena Party can play a key role in several constituencies.

According to Gopalakrishna Dwivedi, the Chief Election Officer, the polling percentage in AP by 6 pm was 74 per cent and may go up to 80 per cent. In areas where clashes took place, he said a decision would be taken on Friday whether there should be a re-poll or not. At seven places, EVMs were damaged by unruly elements belonging to different parties or others and cases were booked against them.

In 2014, the State reported 78 per cent polling.

In Telangana, elections to 17 Lok Sabha seats were held. The polling percentage was 60.67 per cent. Voting was sedate and marked by a low turnout in many constituencies with Hyderabad and Secunderabad reporting less than 50 per cent as per latest reports.

Action in 4 of 13 districts in AP

In four of the total 13 districts — Guntur and three Rayalaseema districts of Kurnool, Anantapur and Chittoor — there were violent clashes at several places between the ruling TDP workers and the opposition YSR Congress workers, resulting in the death of a TDP worker in Anantapur district and injuries to others. Several YSR Congress workers were also injured in these incidents and the death of a YSR Congress worker was also reported, but it was not confirmed.

In Guntur, the AP Assembly Speaker Kodela Sivaprasada Rao was allegedly assaulted by YSR Congress workers in Sattenapalli constituency.

Naidu condemns attack

Rao told reporters that he had gone to the booth on hearing reports of rigging by YSR Congress workers. Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu condemned the attack on Speaker Kodela Sivaprasada Rao and said, “The YSR Congress stands totally exposed. They are resorting to such tactics to reduce the polling percentage and scare away women voters, who are coming out in large numbers, which they fear is disadvantageous to their party”.

Vasireddy Padma, the spokesperson of YSR Congress, alleged that it was the ruling TDP workers who instigated and attacked YSR Congress workers in the Anantapur incident.

‘Scaring voters’

She also rebutted the contention of the CM and the Speaker that the YSR Congress was trying to scare away the voters from booths. “They are preparing excuses for their impending defeat, trying to create a scare,” she alleged.

For more stories on the Lok Sabha elections click here : Elections 2019