This Article is From Apr 10, 2014

Mega round of polling for India's national election: top 10 facts

Mega round of polling for India's national election: top 10 facts

Voting in Muzaffarnagar in phase 3 of the national election

New Delhi: Millions of Indians voted today across 11 states and three Union Territories in one of the biggest phases of the national election to pick a new government at the Centre. Polling took place in 91 of the country's 543 Lok Sabha constituencies. The nine-phase election battle will end on May 12 and the votes will be counted on May 16.

Top 10 facts about today's polling

  1. The Congress holds 45 of the 91 seats that voted today. All seven seats in Delhi voted, apart from 10 in UP, six in Bihar, 10 each in Haryana, Odisha and Maharashtra, all 20 in Kerala, four in Jharkhand, nine in Madhya Pradesh and a seat each in Chhattisgarh, Chandigarh, Andaman and Nicobar Island, Lakshwadeep and Jammu and Kashmir. (India Votes 2014: full coverage)

  2. A clash between security personnel and local people held up voting for almost an hour at a polling booth in Gaya in Bihar. There was a dramatic exchange of fire, but no one was hurt. Earlier, two paramilitary jawans were killed and four others injured in a landmine blast in another part of the state. (2 CRPF jawans killed in suspected Naxal attack on polling day Bihar)

  3. In Uttar Pradesh, the riot-affect Muzaffarnagar district voted under double the security compared to previous polls. Some 350 riot victims went back to their villages after seven months, to cast their votes. They were among thousands of people displaced in the violence that killed nearly 60 people in September.

  4. Around 65 per cent voters cast their ballots, watched by over 10,000 paramilitary personnel. Voters have been given "confidence slips" with emergency phone numbers to dial in case of trouble.

  5. Voting was low in Chhattisgarh's Bastar constituency, which is one of India's worst Maoist insurgency-hit regions. Almost 80 per cent of the polling stations here were declared most sensitive.

  6. Brisk voting was seen in Delhi, which is witnessing a triangular fight between the BJP, Congress, and Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party or AAP.

  7. Today's contest featured several top leaders including union ministers Kamal Nath, Kapil Sibal and Ajit Singh, former BJP president Nitin Gadkari and retired Army chief General VK Singh.

  8. AAP, which is debuting in the national polls, also had prominent leaders in today's battle - Yogendra Yadav, Ashutosh and Shazia Ilmi. The party is seen to have lost some of its popularity after its 49-day stint at power in Delhi, but it is still confident of winning big with its strident anti-graft agenda.

  9. Opinion polls predict that Indians will punish the incumbent Congress government at the Centre for an economic slowdown, skyrocketing prices and a string of corruption scams in its 10-year rule.

  10. The BJP, led by its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, is widely tipped to win this election. The party perceives a wave in favour of Mr Modi, who is seen by his critics as a divisive figure who didn't do enough to check the 2002 riots on his watch in Gujarat, the state he has ruled since 2001.



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