Assembly elections: Nearly 8 of 10 Goans turn out to vote

According to a statement issued by Uttarakhand CEO, out of 11,697 polling parties, 9,385 will return to their collection centres on Monday itself, and the remaining 2,312 polling parties in remote areas will return by Tuesday.

CEO Sowjanya said no untoward incident was reported from Uttarakhand. On faulty EVMs at certain polling stations, she said they were immediately replaced.

Kunal said North Goa’s Sanquelim, represented by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, saw the highest voter turnout of 89.64 per cent, and Benaulim in South Goa the lowest — 70.20 per cent. The turnout was 79.56 per cent in North Goa and 78.22% in South Goa. In Goa, the ruling BJP, contesting all 40 seats for the first time, is up against main opposition Congress-Goa Forward Party alliance, as well as AAP, TMC-MGP alliance, the indigenous Revolutionary Goans, and several high-profile Independent candidates.

Among the earliest voters on Monday morning was Governor P S Sreedharan Pillai and his wife Rita Sreedharan, who cast their vote in Taleigao. Pillai, who took charge as Governor in July 2021, said, “In Goa, all political parties are working effectively. That is the tradition of this state. There are no untoward incidents and even if there are, they are minor.”

Among reasons that brought voters to polling booths were inclusion, education, environment, and unemployment. Nine transgender voters voted for the first time in Goa. Heena Sahibole, 45, a transgender voter, said she finally felt “seen”: “I have lived in Goa for 18 years but this is the first time I have cast my vote. I feel like I have just turned 18. Today, my transgender friends and I have just taken the first step towards inclusion…” Sahibole, who begs for a living, voted in Margao. She hopes the government will help educated transgenders find employment and housing.

Allwyn Mascarenhas, who came to a polling station in Taleigao with his wheelchair-bound father, works in Dubai but returns to Goa every election. “We live abroad because our talent is better recognised there but my heart is here… I want Goan youth to have good job opportunities,” he said.

Inputs from Avaneesh Mishra in Dehradun

Queues outside a polling booth in UP’s Moradabad on Monday. (PTI)

UP records 63% turnout in phase two, Amroha tops with 72%

Uttar Pradesh on Monday recorded a 63.3 per cent turnout in the second phase of the Assembly elections in which 55 seats across nine districts of the state — Saharanpur, Rampur, Shahjahanpur, Badaun, Moradabad, Sambhal, Amroha, Bareilly, and Bijnor — went to the polls.

This was two per cent lower than the 2017 elections. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, 63.13 of the electorate had voted. This time, Amroha recorded the highest turnout at 71.63 per cent, followed by Saharanpur at 71.15 per cent. The six constituencies in Shahjahanpur overall recorded the lowest turnout in the second phase at 55.85 per cent. While all districts polled lower compared to the previous elections, Shahajahanpur recorded the maximum decline of five per cent.

The Samajwadi Party (SP) alleged that the choice of one of its voters in Saharanpur was incorrectly registered for the BJP. Additional Chief Election Officer Brahma Dev Ram Tiwari, however, said the allegation was false. He said the EC took note of another complaint that members of the Yadav community were not allowed to cast their votes. The polling body also found no truth in BJP leader JPS Rathore’s allegation of fake voting by burqa-clad women, the official said, adding that a report from the district magistrate has been sought.

The heavyweights on the SP list included former minister Azam Khan, who was up against the Congress’s Kazim Ali Khan and the BJP’s Akash Saxena in Rampur.