High turn out of voters marked the sixth phase of polling covering 117 constituencies spread across 11 states and the Union Territory of Puducherry. As the race to the Lok Sabha crossed the half-way mark with stakes high for Congress and BJP, polling was moderate in Maharashtra but heavy in other places.
Polling has been by and large peaceful barring a few stray incidents of violence.
In Jharkhand, eight persons – six polling officials and two policemen – were killed today and
seven others injured, when suspected Maoists blew up their vehicle in Dumka district, a senior police officer said. Director General of State Police, Rajeev Kumar said a landmine was triggered when they were returning from poll duty.
Inspector General of Police, Anurag Gupta said that the blast occurred near Asnajore in Shikaripara Assembly segment. He said police reinforcement was rushed to the area for combing operations.
Addressing a press conference in New Delhi this evening Election Commission oficials said, 73 percent voters turned out in Tamilnadu for all its 39 seats, 55 percent for 19 seats in Maharashtra, 60 percent for 10 constituencies in Madhya Pradesh, 60 percent for 7 seats in Bihar and 62 percent voters turned out also for 7 seats in Chhattishgarh. In Assam, 77 percent polling reported in 6 seats,82 percent in 6 seats in West Bengal, 59 percent in 5 seats in Rajasthan, 63 percent in 4 seats in Jharkhand and 28 percent in the lone seat of Jammu and Kashmir. In the Union Territory of Puducherry, polling was 82 percent.
The officials said that the polling remained by and large peaceful in all Parliamentary Constituencies barring one incident in Kokrajhar, Assam where mob tried to snatch EVMs which led to the exchange of fire in which one police personnel was killed and other one injured. Polling was stopped in 7 booths in the area.
In Rajasthan, a mob of 50 people tried to enter a polling booth in Satha there leading the ITBP to open 14 rounds of fire in the air. Five persons including four hotojournalists were injured in Dausa when irate villagers clashed with security forces.
Three persons were injured following a clash between RLD and BJP supporters in Daulatpur village in Mathura. Police said, both sides opened fire and indulged in brickbatting.In Jharkhand, four Congress workers were injured in a clash with supporters of the Marxist Coordination Committee during polling in Dhanbad Lok Sabha constituency.
Prominent candidates, whose were in the today fray, include V. Narayanasamy, Salman Khurshid, Jitendra Singh, Namonarayan Meena, Mohd Azharuddin, Milind Deora, Priya Dutt and Abhijit Mukherjee of the Congress and Sushma Swaraj, Hema Malini and Shahnawaz Hussain of the BJP. Other prominent candidates include Mulayam Singh Yadav of Samajwadi Party, Tariq Anwar of NCP and Dayanidhi Maran, A Raja and TR Baalu of DMK and Medha Patkar of the Aam Aadmi Party.
