Voting for the second phase of Panchayat elections is taking place in Uttar Pradesh today. Over 3.48 lakh eligible voters across twenty districts will decide the fate of over three lakh candidates vying for different positions in various local bodies including zila panchayats, kshetra panchayats, gram panchayats and gram wards.

Polling is taking place in the state capital of Lucknow and also in Varanasi. Other places where votes are being cast today include Amroha, Azamgarh, Badaun, Baghapt, Bijnor, Chitrakoot, Etawah, Etah, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Gonda, Kannauj, Lakhimpur Kheri, Lalitpur, Maharajganj, Mainpuri, Muzaffarnagar, Pratapgarh and Sultanpur.

Many of these areas such as Muzaffarnagar, Gautam Buddh Nagar and Bijnor are communally sensitive, areas such as Badaun have been in the news for incidents of sexual violence, often against women from oppressed and marginalized communities. Meanwhile, the entire state is reeling under the Covid-19 pandemic that is showing no signs of abating. Even the Chief Minister himself was forced to go into self-isolation after contracting the virus.

The first phase of polling had taken place on Thursday, April 15 when voter turnout was recorded at about 71 percent. However, the Election Commission has ordered repolling in at least 20 booths following allegations of poll rigging. These include Fatehabad and Jagner blocks in Agra; Milkipur, Sohawal and Bikapur in Ayodhya; Soraon block in Prayagraj; Moth block in Jhansi among others.

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Image Courtesy: Zee News

Polling in the Tripura (east) Lok Sabha seat has been postponed to April 23 from April 18, announced the Election Commission on Wednesday, owing to “the prevailing law and order situation” which was not “conducive for holding free and fair polls.”

Days before the Lok Sabha polls, Tripura is in deep tension. As per reports from supporters of Communist Part of India (Marxist), left supporters are getting political threats in the form of severed chicken heads and handwritten notes.

The locals had said that if the law and order situation is good, then they will go to cast their votes. Otherwise if the situation is grim, they may not turn up to vote.

Voters were threatened with ‘dire consequences’ if they reached out to polling stations for casting votes in East Tripura, a constituency reserved for the Scheduled Tribe (ST) seats.

East Tripura was to conduct the polls in the second phase of Lok Sabha Elections 2019 on Thursday April 18.

Reportedly, the note read, “If you go to vote on April 18, you will face the same fate.” The brutal imagery of an attached chicken head seemingly is meant to suggest that those voters who stood by CPI (M) would be killed by severing their heads.

The CPI (M) leader and Khowai MLA Nirmal Biswas told Indianexpress that the handwritten notes were served by BJP supporters to identified Left Front supporters in an obvious bid to restrain them from voting on April 18, when East Tripura Lok Sabha constituency goes to polls.

On the other hand, BJP spokesperson Nabendu Bhattacharya had denied allegations that his party served such notices and rejected claims of BJP workers having roles in such incidents. He added that the reported threat was actually a “mischief” carried out by CPI (M) supporters and the blame was later thrown on BJP.

The state chief electoral officer and special police observer, the poll panel said, “The law and order situation prevailing … is not conducive to the holding of free and fair poll.”

Elections for the first phase were held on April 11, Congress and CPI (M) demanded re-polling in 460 polling stations on the ground of rigging.

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