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Baiher, Lanjhi and Paraswada Assembly segments un- was unable to vote because her vote had already been
der Balaghat parliamentary seat, polling will be held cast by the time she reached the polling booth in the
from 7 am to 6 pm, a poll official said. Dhaurhara Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh. “When
In the Naxal-affected areas, polling will be held from my sister went to the polling booth, she found her
7 am to 4 pm, he added. Total 108 candidates are in the name had been ticked and the presiding officer told
fray in the six Lok Sabha seats, including maximum 26 her that vote had been cast. This is how fake voting is
in Sidhi, followed by Balaghat-23, Jabalpur-22, Chhind- taking place,” he said, adding that he would take up
wara-14, Shahdol-13 and Mandla-10. Nine candidates the matter with the Election Commission. The District
are trying their luck in the Chhindwara Assembly by- Magistrate and Returning Officer Amrit Tripathi said
poll. In 2014, riding on the ‘Modi wave’, the BJP won her name was ticked due to the fault of a polling em-
five of these six Lok Sabha seats. ployee. He says Mr Prasada’s sister will be allowed to
Congress veteran Kamal Nath had won from his vote if she came to the polling centre again.
bastion Chhindwara, where his son Nakul Nath is the Chief Electoral Officer of Rajasthan has sought a
party candidate this time for the Lok Sabha polls. Af- report after some voters in Jodhpur had leveled
ter taking over as chief minister following Congress’ charges of bogus voting alleging that their votes had
victory in the last year’s Assembly polls, Kamal Nath already been cast and when inquired, they were told
needs to get elected to the state Legislature within six that nothing can be done now.
months. Congress MLA Deepak Saxena quit from the
Chhindwara Assembly seat to make a way for him. stars & Billionaires Vote
In Uttar Pradesh, Opposition Samajwadi Party Billionaires and Bollywood stars lined up outside poll-
urged EC to remove police chief OP Singh from the ing stations along with the common folks in Mumbai,
post alleging he was “favouring” the ruling BJP and which recorded 51.11 per cent voting, almost similar to
affecting elections. The party also alleged that in at the voting percentage of 51.59 in the 2014 polls. Bol-
at least two polling booths the Voter-Verifiable Paper lywood celebrities including Amitabh Bachchan, the
Audit Trail machine showed the voting for the BJP Khan troika of Shah Rukh, Salman and Aamir, and
when the ballot was cast for the SP. Over 100 polling Deepika Padukone cast their votes in Mumbai. Pri-
booths were replaced in Rajasthan due to malfunc- yanka Chopra, Rekha, Aamir and wife Kiran Rao were
tioning after voting began. among the early voters. Polling was held in six constit-
uencies in Mumbai and 11 other seats in Maharashtra.
Bogus Votings The Ambanis, Tata Sons chairman N Chan-
Former Union Minister Jitin Prasada said his sister drasekaran and Adi Godrej were among the early vot-
ers in Mumbai. Mr Chandrasekaran and his wife voted
In UP, Samajwadi Party’s at a polling booth at Worli in Central Mumbai, while
Mr Godrej cast his ballot in the Malabar Hill area in
south Mumbai. Reserve Bank Governor Shaktikanta
alleged that many EVMs Das also exercised his democratic right near his
official residence at Pedder Road.
malfunctioned and in who came in early at a booth in Cuffe Parade, and auto
Others to cast their votes included Anil Ambani,
Kannauj, from where SP major Mahindra and Mahindra’s managing director
Pawan Goenka, who cast his vote in suburban Juhu.
chief Akhislesh Yadav’s Ashish Chauhan, the managing director and chief
executive of Asia’s oldest stock bourse BSE, also cast
his vote, as did American brokerage Morgan Stan-
wife Dimple Yadav is ley’s managing director Riddham Desai. Chairman of
Mahindra Group, Anand Mahindra, after casting his
contesting, several party vote in Malabar Hill, says: “We all have been infected
by the virus of progress and growth. Even if a coali-
workers were prevented tion govt comes, it should work towards progress and
growth of the country.”
from coming out of their Criminal reCords
homes to vote According to the National Election Watch and Asso-
ciation for Democratic Reforms (ADR), a total of 210
candidates who contested in phase 4 of the Lok Sabha
tehelka / 15 may 2019 18 www.tehelka.com
