Lucknow: Voting for the high-stakes by-elections to 15 Lok Sabha and assembly constituencies across 11 states of India are underway.
The Lok Sabha seats for which voting is underway are: Palghar and Bhanara-Gondiya in Maharashtra; Kairana in Uttar Pradesh, and Nagaland parliamentary constituency.
While the assembly bypolls are taking place in Gomia and Silli constituencies of Jharkhand; Noorpur in Uttar Pradesh; Shahkot in Punjab; Jokihat in Bihar; Chengannur in Kerala; Palus Kadegaon in Maharashtra; Ampati in Meghalaya; Tharali in Uttarakhand and Maheshtala in West Bengal.
Meanwhile, there have been several reports of EVM Malfunctioning in Maharashtra, Uttarakhand and Kairana.
The elections in four Lok Sabha seats are being seen with keen interest as their result on May 31 could be a trendsetter for the 2019 general elections.
Braving heavy rains, people turned out in large numbers to cast their franchise in the Chengannur Assembly constituency began.
Leader of Opposition in the Kerala state assembly, Ramesh Chennithala was among the early voters in the constituency, which had witnessed a fierce contest between all the three fronts in the run-up to the polls.
There are reports that in Noorpur 140 EVMs are faulty, which is because they’ve tampered, there are similar reports from Kairana. They (BJP) want to avenge defeat in Phulpur & Gorakhpur, which is why they want to defeat us at any cost said Rajendra Chaudhary, Samajwadi Party.
I have been continuously receiving complaints. They didn’t expect so many people to come out to vote in Ramzan. The initial strategy was to hold elections in Ramzan so that people won’t vote – Tabassum Hasan, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) candidate