New Delhi: The fifth phase of Lok Sabha elections for 51 parliamentary constituencies concluded on Monday with 63% of total turnout of voting.
This phase of polling will decide the fate of 674 candidates, including Congress president Rahul Gandhi, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, and Union ministers Rajnath Singh and Smriti Irani. With this phase, polling for 78 per cent of parliamentary constituencies has been completed.
However, this phase of polling saw a relatively more violence in different states as compared to the previous phases of polling of 2019. States of Jammu and Kashmir and West- Bengal witnessed violence amidst polling.
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In J&K, a grenade was thrown towards a polling booth in Pulwama and a school building designated as polling booth was set on fire in Shopian. While in West-Bengal, a few CPI (M) workers were also assaulted and two people injured. There were two other incidents in Howrah and Hooghly.
Leaving Anantnag in Jammu and Kashmir and West Bengal, voter turnout was relatively higher this time, compared with 2014 in the remaining states.
The biggest increment in the voting percentage came in Madhya Pradesh, which saw the turnout increase from nearly 57.6 per cent in 2014 to 68.7 per cent for the seven parliamentary seats.
In Uttar- Pradesh (UP) the total turnout was 57.9%, West-Bengal – 81.2%, Jharkhand- 63.9%, Rajasthan- 61.5%, Bihar- 56.4%, Jammu and Kashmir- 27.2%.
The EC informed about the scuffle had broken out between BJP's Barrackpore candidate Arjun Singh and TMC workers who had visited a booth following allegations that voters were not being allowed to exercise their franchise. Three media persons were injured in the clashes.