LUCKNOW: Polling is underway in Uttar Pradesh’s Kairana parliamentary seat on Monday. Voting for Kairana in western Uttar Pradesh and the Noorpur assembly seat began amid tight security at 7 a.m. and will continue till 6 p.m.
In Kairana, the main contest is between Mriganka Singh of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) candidate Tabassum Hasan.
Singh, daughter of the late BJP MP from Kairana, Hukum Singh is counting on the sympathy wave in the name of her father and the power of the Yogi Adityanath government to win the election, while Hasan is pinning her hopes on the opposition unity as the Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Nishad Party, Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have extended their support to her.
LIVE UPDATES:
EVMs malfunctioning in Bhandara-Gondiya poll. In many big European nations, election commissions have rejected the EVMs and gone back to ballot paper system. SP leader Akhilesh Yadav ji just called me up,he also said 300 EVMs not working in Kairana bypoll: Praful Patel,NCP pic.twitter.com/M8mOsOHNIt
— ANI (@ANI) May 28, 2018
Technical problems in EVMs&VVPATs clearly indicate failure of EC.If this is the situation in by-polls, think about coming Lok Sabha Elections. We've said it again & again & other parties have also agreed,that elections should be conducted using ballot papers:Anil Desai, Shiv Sena pic.twitter.com/bpaoLJALw5
— ANI (@ANI) May 28, 2018
Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav raises EVM tampering claims in Kairana
“Upchunav mein jagah jagah se EVM kharab hone ki khabrein aa rahi hain, lekin phir bhi apne matadhikar ke liye zaroor jayen aur apna kartavya nibhayan,” Akhilesh said on Twitter.
उप चुनाव में जगह-जगह से EVM मशीन के ख़राब होने की ख़बरें आ रही हैं, लेकिन फिर भी अपने मताधिकार के लिए ज़रूर जाएँ और अपना कर्तव्य निभाएँ.
— Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) May 28, 2018
I've been continuously receiving complaints. They didn't expect so many ppl to come out to vote in Ramzan.Initial strategy was to hold elections in Ramzan so that ppl won't vote: Tabassum Hasan, RLD candidate for #Kairana Lok Sabha seat after writing to EC over faulty EVMs&VVPATs pic.twitter.com/0JjnN4LMrC
— ANI UP/Uttarakhand (@ANINewsUP) May 28, 2018
LIVE UPDATES:
Tabassum Hasan writes to EC over faulty EVMs
Tabassum Hasan, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) candidate for #Kairana Lok Sabha by-poll, writes to the Election Commission over faulty EVMs & VVPATs in around 175 polling booths across Shamli, #Kairana and #Noorpur pic.twitter.com/thY6WXGZD4
— ANI UP/Uttarakhand (@ANINewsUP) May 28, 2018
10.20 % voting till 9 am: EC
“There are reports that in Noorpur, 140 EVMs are faulty which is because they have tampered. There are similar reports from Kairana. They (BJP) want to avenge defeat in Phulpur and Gorakhpur, which is why they want to defeat us at any cost,” ANI quotes Rajendra Chaudhary, Samajwadi Party, as saying.
There are reports that in #Noorpur 140 EVMs are faulty, which is because they've been 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 : Rajendra Chaudhary, Samajwadi Party pic.twitter.com/0FqfZEG8vl
— ANI UP/Uttarakhand (@ANINewsUP) May 28, 2018
Tabassum Hasan, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) candidate for #Kairana Lok Sabha by-poll, casts her vote; says, 'machines are being tampered everywhere, faulty machines haven't been replaced in Muslim&Dalit dominated areas. They (BJP) think they can win polls like this.That won't happen' pic.twitter.com/1jyBDTmtKZ
— ANI UP/Uttarakhand (@ANINewsUP) May 28, 2018
Voting under way for #Nagaland Lok Sabha by-poll, visuals from a polling station in #Dimapur. pic.twitter.com/bJMNRzPDYv
— ANI (@ANI) May 28, 2018
Visuals from a polling booth in Shamli
Voting for #Kairana Lok Sabha by-poll underway; Visuals from a polling booth in Shamli pic.twitter.com/llxd62paO0
— ANI UP/Uttarakhand (@ANINewsUP) May 28, 2018
In all there are 16,09,628 voters in Kairana of which 8,73,120 men, 7,36,431 women and 77 of the third gender.
In Noorpur, BJP’s Avni Singh is pitted against Naimul Hasan of the SP. There are 3,06,226 male voters, 1,41,924 women and 10 from the third gender.
The Election Commission official said there are 2,056 polling booths and 1,094 polling centres.
To ensure free, fair and peaceful elections, the poll panel has deputed three general observers and two expenditure observers.
All the electronic voting machines (EVM’s) being used in the two bypolls will have VVPAT machines to enable the voter to see for whom he or she has voted.
A total of 2,651 EVM control units, 2,651 ballot units and 2,596 VVPAT’s are being used in the polling process, the official told IANS.
Realising that the elections are crucial and high stake, the poll panel has deputed 53 companies of the para-military forces here and 10 companies of the provincial armed constabulary (PAC).
IANS inputs