Nearly 140 million people in seven states and two UTs, exercised their right to vote in Phase 7 of the ongoing Lok Sabha Elections with 1,295 candidates in the fray from 89 seats on 30th April. Voting took place in all the 26 seats from Gujarat, 13 in Punjab and 17 in Telangana region. Other constituencies include 17 seats in Andhra Pradesh, 7 in Bihar, 1 in Jammu and Kashmir, 14 in Uttar Pradesh, 9 in West Bengal and one each in the Union Territories of Daman & Diu as well as Dadra and Nagar Haveli. This include some big heavyweights like Narendra Modi from Vadodara, LK Advani from Gandhinagar, Arun Jaitley from Amritsar, Rajnath Singh from Lucknow and MM Joshi from Kanpur among the BJP candidates and Congress President Sonia Gandhi from Rae Bareli.

The elections witnessed 82% turnout in West Bengal, 73% in Punjab,64% in Gujarat, 57% in Uttar Pradesh, 55% in Andhra Pradesh, 58% in Bihar, 72% in Telangana, 25% IN Jammu and Kashmir, 76% in Daman & Diu and 85% in Dadra and Nagar Haveli.“There is a phenomenal increase in the voter turnout in Gujarat…,” said Akshay Rout, director general of the Election Commission. “The voter turnout for the state in the 2009 general election was 47.8%.” This was mainly due to the election drive carried out by the Election Commission throughout the country.

Controversy

Narendra Modi landed in a controversy when he displayed his party symbol ‘Lotus’ and addressed the media after casting his vote, with the Congress complaining to the EC against the move and demanding that the poll body file an FIR against him, following which the Election Commission directed the Ahemdabad Crime Branch to file 2 FIRs against Modi under Section 126 1(B) of the Representation of the People Act which prohibits any candidate from displaying election material 48 hours before the period fixed for polling and section 188 of Indian Penal Code for violating CrPC section 144, which prohibits more than four people from gathering for a specific purpose.

Reacting to the case registered against him by Gujarat police on Election Commission’s order for addressing the media after casting his vote in Ahmedabad and displaying BJP’s symbol, Narendra Modi said it was the first FIR of his life which he will never forget. He also lashed out at Congress, saying it was facing defeat and was worried that “a person who (once) eked out his livelihood by selling tea” was challenging it.

The BJP is eyeing at least 62 of the seats up for grabs in Wednesday’s voting, by the end of which elections were completed in 438 of the 543 Lok Sabha constituencies. Elections to the remaining 105 constituencies will he held on 7 May (64 seats) and 12 May (41). The results will be declared on 16 May.

[Image Attribute: The Hindu]