Over 150 veterans have written to President Ram Nath Kovind expressing their unhappiness over the "politicisation" of the armed forces in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. The letter, sent to the President on Thursday, the first day of the national election, refers to the "unusual and completely unacceptable practice of political leaders taking credit for military operations like cross-border strikes and claiming the armed forces to be 'Modi ji ki Sena'". The signatories include three former Army chiefs - General (retired) SF Rodrigues, General (retired) Shankar Roy Chowdhury and General (retired) Deepak Kapoor, four former Navy chiefs and former Air Force chief NC Suri.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has directed all political parties to provide receipts of electoral bonds and details of identity of donors in a sealer cover to the Election Commission by May 30. In an interim order, the court also directed all political parties to provide details of the amount and bank account of donors to the poll panel. " Electoral bonds scheme will continue, there is no stay. All parties must submit the details to EC in a sealed cover," said the bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna.
With the first phase of Lok Sabha elections over, political parties have deputed their star campaigners for the remaining phases of the seven-phased elections. Prime Minister Narenda Modi and Congress President Rahul Gandhi will today address rallies for the remaining phases of the seven-phased elections.
PM Modi addressed rallies in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala, while the Congress President will address multiple rallies across Tamil Nadu.
The first phase of the Lok Sabha elections saw a mixed turnout with West Bengal witnessing an impressive turnout of 80.9 per cent and Bihar recording 50.3 per cent - the lowest turnout among the 18 states. Sporadic incidents of violence were reported in Andhra Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh. A worker of Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu's party, the TDP, was killed in the poll clashes yesterday.
The Electronic Voting Machine or EVMs also came in for intense criticism with reports of glitches cropping up from several places. Mr Naidu even wrote to Election Commission demanding repolling in nearly 150 polling stations in the state.