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Modi's lotus triggers row as millions vote in India

BJP's prime ministerial candidate courted a controversy when he displayed a lotus symbol near the polling booth in Gandhinagar where he voted.

Some 83 million voted in 89 Lok Sabha constituencies across India on Wednesday, a day an FIR was slapped against BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi for showing off his party symbol close to a polling booth.

Braving the scorching summer, about 60 per cent of the 139 million electorate trooped to over 150,000 polling stations in seven states and two union territories to pick 89 MPs from among 1,200 candidates including Congress president Sonia Gandhi (Rae Bareli), BJP president Rajnath Singh (Lucknow) and BJP patriarch L.K. Advani (Gandhinagar).

Wednesday marked the end of the eighth phase of 10-phased balloting that ends on May 12 to elect 543 members to the Lok Sabha, in which two members are nominated. The votes will be counted on May 16. Polling is now over in 438 constituencies and wholly in 21 states.

Modi, the Gujarat chief minister, courted a controversy when he displayed a lotus symbol near the polling booth in Gandhinagar where he voted. He also clicked a selfie.

Opposition parties, including the Congress and the AAP, were quick to complain that this violated the model code of conduct. On the urging of the poll panel, the Gujarat authorities filed a police complaint against Modi.

Congress general secretary Ajay Maken said: "We appeal to the Election Commission to ask the Gujarat government not to come under pressure of the chief minister."

The complaint was lodged at the Ahmedabad City police station.

Polling was brisk in most places, barring Jammu and Kashmir's Srinagar seat, where balloting was sluggish amid a boycott call by separatists. West Bengal as well as Andhra Pradesh's Telangana region, which also voted for a legislature for the proposed state, saw a huge voter turnout.

Apart from Srinagar where the voter turnout barely crossed 25 per cent, heavy polling took place in Punjab (73 per cent), Daman and Diu (76 per cent) and Andhra Pradesh (70 per cent). West Bengal saw a staggering 81 per cent voter turnout.

Polling in Uttar Pradesh was around 57 per cent, while in Bihar and Gujarat, it crossed the 60 per cent mark.

Vadodara, from where Modi is contesting, recorded 70 per cent turnout, while Rae Bareli, the constituency of Sonia Gandhi, saw just over 51 per cent of voters casting their ballots.

Balloting took place in Gujarat (26 Lok Sabha seats), Andhra Pradesh (17), Uttar Pradesh (14), Punjab (13), West Bengal (9), Bihar (7) and Jammu and Kashmir, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu (one constituency each).

After voting in Gandhinagar, Modi flew to Bihar where he addressed a rally in Ujiyarpur Lok Sabha constituency calling for "a strong government in the country".

"It is certain a new government led by the BJP will be formed," he said, predicting a defeat for the Congress-led UPA government.

All 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat and all 13 in Punjab voted on Thursday.

Punjab is witnessing some high-profile electoral battles. The most keenly watched contest is in Amritsar where the BJP's Arun Jaitley, fighting a Lok Sabha election for the first time, is pitted against former chief minister Amarinder Singh of the Congress.

In Andhra Pradesh, nine of the 10 districts which constitute the Telangana region recorded brisk voting.

Prominent among the contestants include union cabinet Minister S. Jaipal Reddy (Mahabubnagar), Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief K. Chandrasekhara Rao (Medak) and Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi (Hyderabad).

TRS chief Rao said he was confident of his party forming a government on its own strength in the proposed state of Telangana.

Heavy polling took place in West Bengal, following which the Communist Party of India-Marxist alleged "widespread rigging, violence and capture of polling booths" by the Trinamool Congress.

"Hundreds of polling booths were affected in Bolpur, Birbhum, Bardhaman Purba, Bardhaman-Durgapur, Howrah and Uluberia Lok Sabha constituencies," it said, demanding a re-poll.

"Polling agents of the CPI-M and the Left Front were driven out in a number of booths and blatant false voting has taken place in the presence of polling personnel," the party added.

Deputy Election Commissioner Vinod Zutshi said polling was peaceful and no untoward incidents were reported, "except a few cases of boycott in Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat".

On reports of booth capturing in West Bengal, he said the poll panel will scrutinise the report of election observers and the video recordings.

"If the reports are found to be true, we may go for repoll in those booths," he said.

Election Commission Director-General Akshay Rout said that in polling held so far in 28 states, "26 states recorded higher turnouts than the last Lok Sabha election (in 2009) and 14 states recorded the highest ever turnout".

He said that until now, the overall turnout was 66 per cent, compared to just 57.61 per cent in 2009.