New Delhi: President Droupadi Murmu, vice-president Jagdeep Dhankhar, Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, Delhi L-G V.K. Saxena, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Union Cabinet ministers S. Jaishankar and Hardeep Sigh Puri were among the top dignitaries to cast votes in the national capital during the sixth phase of Lok Sabha elections on Saturday. Delhi recorded 58 per cent polling.
In the penultimate phase of the ongoing general election, 58 parliamentary constituencies in eight states and Union territories, including Delhi, went to the polls. Simultaneously, polling was also held for 42 Assembly seats in Odisha.
The overall voter turnout in the sixth phase of voting, according to the Election Commission, was about 61 per cent. With 79.25 per cent polling on Saturday, West Bengal recorded the highest poll percentage in this phase, followed by Jharkhand (64 per cent) and Odisha (69 per cent).
Jammu and Kashmir with 54.06 per cent voting, Bihar at 55.24 per cent, Uttar Pradesh at 54.03 per cent and Haryana at 60 per cent were among the low-polling states/UT.
Given the scorching heat in north India, voters largely chose early morning and late evening to step out. In Delhi, Mr Kejriwal voted with his family except for his mother, who was unwell, on Saturday.
The three election commissioners also voted along with several Cabinet ministers. External affairs minister S. Jaishankar, who stepped out to vote very early, even got a certificate for being the first male voter from his polling booth.
A big surprise was actor Siddharth Malhotra, who voted in Delhi. “Came to my hometown, Delhi, to celebrate the world's largest democracy by voting. Delhi. Go out and vote,” he said on X.
While the CEC urged voters to come out and vote, there was anguish among many voters who found their names "missing" from the electoral roll without information. Lawyer Vrinda Grover’s 89-year-old mother filed a complaint with the CEC after she found her name missing from the electoral rolls. The lawyer has said she is taking EC to court on this.
Similarly, Younus Salim and Azim Khan, employees at the Rashtrapati Bhawan, went to exercise their franchise at Dr Rajendra Prasad Kendriya Vidyalaya in the President's Estate, only to find their names missing from the voters' list. “I had cast my vote in the 2022 MCD polls. How is it that my name is not on the voters' list? We are employees here,” Mr Khan said.
In Haryana, many prominent wrestlers like Babita Phogat and Yogeshwar Dutt exercised their franchise.
In Odisha, an elderly woman voter who fell ill at a polling booth in the Nayagarh Assembly segment's Bhapur area died at a hospital, while a polling agent died at a booth under the Hindol Assembly segment of Dhenkanal Lok Sabha seat.
A non-resident Indian (NRI) travelled thousands of miles from Dubai to cast his vote in the simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in Odisha on Saturday. Priyadarshee Panigrahi, the son of former parliamentarian and Odisha minister Sriballav Panigrahi, has been living in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates since 2008. He undertook a 20-hour journey from Dubai to Kolkata via flight, then by train to Jharsuguda and finally by road to Sambalpur to reach his polling station at 11.30 am to exercise his franchise.
West Bengal once again witnessed sporadic incidents of violence in a few areas in the eight Lok Sabha constituencies that went to the polls in the sixth phase on Saturday. Senior BJP leader and its Jhargram candidate Pranat Tudu claimed his convoy was attacked in Garbeta area of West Midnapore district, following which security personnel escorting him were injured and had to be hospitalised. The incident took place when Mr Tudu was on his way to Garbeta in the wake of complaints that the BJP agents were not allowed inside some polling booths.
In Jammu and Kashmir, people living along the Line of Control (LoC) in Sehar and Makri under the Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha constituency cast their vote without fear of cross-border shelling. A renewed ceasefire between India and Pakistan came into effect on February 25, 2021, providing much-needed relief to border residents.
The EC said Anantnag-Rajouri parliamentary constituency, with 54.06 per cent polling, made history by recording the highest turnout in the last 35 years. There was about 50 per cent voting in three parliamentary constituencies in the Valley, as compared to 19.16 per cent in 2019.
“Kashmir, Anantnag-Rajouri parliamentary constituency has shattered voter turnout records, with 51.35 per cent recorded at 5 pm in the districts of Anantnag, Poonch, Kulgam and the districts of Rajouri and Shopian, partially... the highest since 1989,” the EC press release said. The polling process for five Lok Sabha seats in this Union territory is complete now.
However, many non-migrant Kashmiri Pandits expressed anguish on Saturday, claiming that their names were not on the voters' list and labelling it "unfortunate" as they remained in the Kashmir region despite the turbulent militancy period of the 1990s.
People said they have been born and brought up in Kashmir (Anantnag) and have their Aadhaar and election cards, but they were still "not allowed" to cast their votes at the polling station.
