Lok Sabha elections 2018: Technical snags in UP EVMs hold up polling
The highest number of EVM malfunctioning cases were reported from Kannauj’s booth number 189. Polling was suspended in Kannuaj for up to two hours due to EVM snags.
Polling was held for 13 out of Uttar Pradesh’s 80 Lok Sabha seats in the fourth phase of the ongoing national elections amid reports of electronic voting machine (EVM) malfunctioning and clashes, and 58.86% turnout was recorded.
As many as 152 candidates, including Samajwadi Party (SP)’s Dimple Yadav (Kannauj), Congress’s Salman Khursheed (Farrukhabad) and Sriprakash Jaiswal (Kanpur), were in the fray.
Officials said EVM snags were reported from almost all the constituencies. SP chief Akhilesh Yadav brought the snags to the Election Commission’s notice through his tweets.
The highest number of EVM malfunctioning cases were reported from Kannauj’s booth number 189. Polling was suspended in Kannuaj for up to two hours due to EVM snags. At Chhibramau’s booth number 186, EVMs were replaced thrice. Polling could not start until 8.30 am as the EVM was out of order at Akbarpur’s booth number 224.
In Kannauj, Dimple Yadav’s representative, Guddu Saxena, complained to poll observers that the district administration did not allow SP leaders and workers to move out of their houses. He complained that security personnel were deployed outside the houses of SP leaders before polling began.
Police superintendent Ravina Tyagi rushed to the spot and pacified agitated voters at a polling booth at Barra in Kanpur when an EVM did not work. The EVM at the booth was later replaced.
Voters in Akbarpur’s Mohammadpur Narval village boycotted the elections claiming that they did not receive the benefits of government welfare schemes.
In Kanpur, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers clashed with police and allegedly threatened circle officer Janardan Dubey and his subordinates posted on election duty. Dubey said some BJP agents forcibly tried to enter a polling booth at a primary school and when stopped, they threatened him. “A case has been registered against BJP leader Suresh Awasthi and six others,” said Kanpur’s district magistrate, Vijay Vishwas Pant.
In Kanpur’s Pali, about 1,300 out of 2,500 voters could not vote as their names were missing from the voter list. The voters shouted slogans against poll officials.