Lok Sabha Election LIVE: PM Modi holds roadshow in Varanasi, to file nomination on May 14

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and party president Mallikarjun Kharge will visit Odisha on May 15 and May 16, respectively to address election rallies.

Briefing media persons here, AICC in-charge of Odisha, Ajoy Kumar on Monday said Gandhi is scheduled to address an election rally in Bolangir on May 15.

He will arrive here at Bhubaneswar airport at around 11 am and then directly proceed to Bolangir to address a public meeting at around 11.30 am, Kumar said.

Kharge would address a public meeting in Kandhamal Lok Sabha constituency on May 16. The Congress president is also scheduled to address a press conference on the same day in Bhubaneswar, he said.

Senior Congress leader and former Union minister Jairam Ramesh is also scheduled to address a press conference here on Tuesday (May 14).

This will be the second visit of Gandhi to Odisha during the current elections. Earlier, he had launched an election campaign for Congress in Odisha from Salepur in Cuttack district on April 28.

"90% of booths are compromised. Police do not want to instruct female constables to check the face with the voter ID. When I asked the police officer, he said it's not his responsibility," the BJP candidate from Hyderabad said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a six-kilometre-long roadshow in Varanasi on Monday evening, a day before he files his nomination from the Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh.

Before he files his nomination on Tuesday, Modi will also take a dip in the Ganga, sources in the BJP said.

The prime minister is seeking a third consecutive term from the seat that will go to polls on June 1 in the seventh and last phase of the general elections More than 5,000 'matrashaktis' (women) will walk in the roadshow, the sources said and added that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, ministers and legislators will also participate in the event.

The roadshow will be held from Malviya Chauraha in Lanka to Shri Kashi Vishwanath Dham, they said. It will pass through Sant Ravidas Gate, Assi, Shivala, Sonarpura, Jangambadi, Godaulia.

The sources said that Modi will be staying the night at the BLW guesthouse.

He will reach the guesthouse from Vishwanath Dham and his convoy is expected to pass through Maidagin Chauraha, Kabirchaura, Lahurabir, Teliabagh Tiraha, Chowkaghat Chauraha, Lakdi Mandi, Cantt Overbridge, Lahartara Chauraha, Manduwadih Chauraha and Kakarmatta Overbridge areas.

BJP office bearers also said people from different communities, including Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali, Maheshwari, Marwari, Tamil and Punjabi, will welcome Modi at 100 points in 11 zones during the roadshow.

The prime minister will be welcomed with the blowing of conches and beats of 'dhols' and 'damrus'.

Prime Minister Modi will also go to seek the blessings from Baba Vishwanath, they said. Cutouts of famous people of Kashi will also be installed along the route of the roadshow. 

A voter turnout of 39.30% was recorded till 1 pm in four Lok Sabha and 28 assembly constituencies in Odisha on Monday, officials said.

Voting started at 7 am in 7,303 polling stations in Berhampur, Koraput, Nabarangpur, and Kalahandi parliamentary constituencies along with 28 assembly segments within the jurisdiction of these Lok Sabha seats.

Lok Sabha and Assembly elections are being held simultaneously in Odisha.

Till 1 pm, 39.30% of the 62.87 lakh voters have exercised their franchise, the officials said, adding that the highest voter turnout was recorded in tribal-dominated Kalahandi Lok Sabha seat at 42.67% followed by Nabarangpur with 42.65% turnout, Koraput (36.64%), and Berhampur (34.97%).

A voter turnout of 39.68% was recorded till 1 pm on Monday in Uttar Pradesh where polling is underway in 13 Lok Sabha constituencies in the fourth round of the seven-phase general elections.

Polling began at 7 am and is scheduled to end at 6 pm.

Till 1 pm, Uttar Pradesh recorded 39.68% polling, according to Election Commission figures.

"Ours is a 100-year-old relationship with Raebareli. A few days ago when I was sitting with my mother, I told her that I said in a video that I have two mothers - Sonia ji and Indira ji. My mother did not like this, but I explained to her that a mother is the one who shows the path to the child and also protects her. Both my mother and Indira Ji did this for me. This is the 'karma-bhoomi' of both my mothers," he said.

"This is the reason I have come to contest from Raebareli. First time in the history of our country, BJP-RSS people want to end our Constitution. Their leaders have clearly said that if they come to power they will change the Constitution," the Congress leader added.

The Election Commission (EC) has suspended two polling officials in Odisha for dereliction of duty, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Nikunja Bihari Dhal said here on Monday.

One polling official from Narla assembly constituency in Kalahandi district and another polling official in Ganjam district have been suspended for dereliction of duty, he said.

"We are monitoring the poll process in our webcasting room. A minor group clash-like incident was reported from Chikiti area in Ganjam district. I have personally spoken to SP Berhampur and Ganjam Collector and asked them to ensure that the polling goes on smoothly in Berhampur LS constituency eespecially in the Chikiti area," Dhal told media persons.

"I am a candidate. As per law candidate has the right to check the ID cards without the facemasks. I am not a man, I am a woman and with a lot of humbleness, I have only requested them - can I please see and verify with the ID cards. If somebody wants to make a big issue out of it, that means they are scared," she said.

A 14.94% voter turnout was recorded in the first four hours of polling in the Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency on Monday, higher than the overall turnout of the 2019 elections for the seat in Jammu and Kashmir, according to official figures.

Voting started at 7 am in the constituency where polling is underway in the fourth round of the seven-phase general elections.

The redrawn Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency has registered a poll percentage of 14.94 till 11 am, according to Election Commission figures. There are a total of 17.48 lakh eligible voters in Srinagar.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the total turnout for the seat was around 14.43%, while in 2014, it was 25.86%.

Security forces on Monday thwarted an attempt by Maoists to obstruct voter access to polling booths by felling a tree and blocking a road leading to remote Sonapi and Morangponga areas of West Singhbhum district, officials said.

"We received reports of Maoists blocking a road with a felled tree near Sonapi to hinder voters from reaching booth numbers 24 and 25 in Chotanagar police station area, which collectively accommodate 1,522 voters. We ensured that voters were able to cast their ballots, resulting in a turnout of 50.94% and 15.43% respectively in these two booths by 10:30 am," West Singhbhum deputy commissioner and district election officer Kuldeep Chaudhary told PTI.

Over the past few days, the Election Commission had dispatched polling parties via trains and helicopters in Maoist-hit Singhbhum region, many areas of which are set to witness polling for the first time or after several decades.

Polling parties and materials were air-dropped in 126 polling stations in Singhbhum, the officials said and added that apart from that, about 100 polling parties were dispatched via a special train from Chakradharpur to Rourkela.

Nearly 27% voter turnout was recorded till 11 am in four Lok Sabha seats in Jharkhand on Monday, elections officials said here.

Voting started at 7 am in Singhbhum, Lohardaga, Khunti and Palamu seats amid tight security measures, marking the first phase of elections in the eastern state, and will continue till 5 pm.

Maoist-hit Singhbhum seat saw about 26.16% voter turnout till 11 am while the same was at 29.14%, about 27.77% and 26.95% in Khunti, Lohardaga and Palamu seats respectively.

Congress candidate from North-East Delhi, Kanhaiya Kumar casts his vote at a polling booth in Begusarai.The constituency sees the contest between sitting MP-BJP candidate Giriraj Singh and CPI candidate Awadhesh Rai.

BJP's Hyderabad candidate Madhavi Latha visited polling booths in Telangana. After taking note of the polling process, she sharply criticised the police present there.

"The Police personnel seem very dull, they are not active. They are not checking anything. Senior citizen voters are coming here but their names are deleted from the list. A few of them are residents of Goshamahal but their names are in the list of Rangareddy," she said.

"Due to the ongoing Lok Sabha elections in the country, BSF has increased strictness on the India-Bangladesh border, vigilant personnel of Border outpost Haldarpada, 32 Battalion, BSF under South Bengal Frontier foiled a smuggling attempt at the International Border in Nadia district and seized 26 gold biscuits. The weight of the seized gold biscuits is 3.208 kg and the estimated value is over  Rs 2.35 Crore," the BSF said in a statement.

PM Narendra Modi serves langar at Gurudwara Patna Sahib in Patna, Bihar.

Nagapattinam MP and veteran Communist leader M Selvaraj, who led several protests in support of the delta farmers, died due to age-related problems here on Monday, sources at a hospital said.

He was 67 and is survived by his wife Kamalavathanam and two daughters.

Popularly known as Selvarasu, the CPI leader was born in 1957 in Tiruvarur district. He was not keeping well for some months and he breathed his last in the wee hours today, the sources said.

The four-time MP made a mark in the 1989 Lok Sabha elections when he won from Nagapattinam constituency. He also emerged victorious in the 1996, 1998 and 2019 general elections.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin, who condoled the death, said Selvaraj's demise was an irreparable loss to the CPI and the people of the delta districts as well.

CPI state secretary R Mutharasan too condoled the death.

A TMC worker was reportedly killed in a bomb blast a day before the fourth phase of the Lok Sabha elections. The worker, identified as Mintu Sheikh, was reportedly riding his bike to his home when some miscreants tossed a bomb at him.

Hours after the attack, the top brass of the TMC jumped into action. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee accused CPI(M) of carrying out the attack. "Taking a page out of their 34-year reign of violence and bloodshed, CPI(M) harmads brutally killed our party worker in Ketugram," the party wrote on social media.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Mukesh Kumar Meena on Monday said three TDP polling agents who were allegedly kidnapped in Chittoor district have been traced and secured.

According to a press release from the CEO's office, the TDP agents were kidnapped from Bokaramanda village in Chittoor district's Sadum mandal, which falls under the Punganuru Assembly constituency.

"TDP district in-charge Jagan Mohan Raju complained that TDP agents belonging to polling stations 188, 189 and 199 were kidnapped by YSRCP leaders while going to the polling stations," said Meena.

Consequently, the CEO noted that Chittoor district election officials and the Police department responded quickly, rescuing the kidnapped agents from Pileru and later enabled them to attend to their duties.

Further, Meena observed that a probe is underway to identify the kidnappers.

Simultaneous polls for 25 Lok Sabha and 175 Assembly seats are underway in Andhra Pradesh today. 

Union Minister and Telangana BJP chief G Kishan Reddy and 'Pushpa' movie fame Allu Arjun were among the early voters in Telangana as polling for the 17 Lok Sabha seats in the state got underway.

AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi, who is seeking re-election from the Hyderabad Lok Sabha constituency and BJP candidate from the seat K Madhavi Latha also cast their votes.

Polling which began at 7 am will end by 6 pm, barring at a few places where it will conclude two hours earlier.

The Election Commission has also made arrangements to conduct a bypoll for the Secunderabad (Cantonment) Assembly seat to be held simultaneously today.

"Several voters including some senior citizens cast their votes. People, in large numbers, are coming out to vote. I am requesting the people to come and exercise their franchise for democracy and the country's security," Reddy told reporters after casting his vote.

"I have never seen such a crowd during my political career. People have come from America, Bengaluru, Chennai to cast their votes. People want to protect democracy and their future," TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu said after casting his vote.

The Samajwadi Party said there were reports of malfunctioning EVMs and slow voting in Uttar Pradesh's Kannauj, a constituency where Akhilesh Yadav is on the ballot. Here is a list of social media posts made by the party so far:

"In Kannauj Lok Sabha, booth number 270 of Rasulabad Vidhan Sabha and booth number 103 of Tirwa Vidhan Sabha has been notified that the EVM machine is malfunctioning."

"In Kannauj Lok Sabha, there is a notice of malfunction of EVM machine at booth number 425 of Chibramau Vidhan Sabha and booth number 42 of Kannauj Vidhan Sabha."

"In the Kannauj Vidhan Sabha of Kannauj Lok Sabha, polling is going on at a slow speed at booth number 412 of sector 40."

"Polling is being influenced by goons at booth number 305, 306 in Rasulabad Vidhan Sabha of Kannauj Lok Sabha."

PM Narendra Modi requested voters to to exercise their franchise and participate in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.

"I am sure people in these constituencies will vote in large numbers and the young voters as well as women voters will power this surge in voting. Come, let’s all do our duty and strengthen our democracy," the prime minister wrote on social media.