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Poll violence in Rajasthan

Special Correspondent

One killed in Sawai Madhopur; total turnout 50 per cent

- Photo: Rohit Jain Paras

A proud moment: Woman voters proudly showing their voter I-cards after casting their votes in Naraina village under the Jaipur parliamentary constituency in Rajasthan on Thursday.

JAIPUR: One person was killed when security personnel opened fire on a mob allegedly trying to capture a booth at Olwara village in Sawai Madhopur district of Rajasthan during polling for the Lok Sabha elections on Thursday, while stray incidents of violence, stone-throwing and booth capturing were reported from several other constituencies.

Chief Electoral Officer Vinod Zutshi said the turnout of voters hovered around an average of 50 per cent in the 25 constituencies across the State, with the highest polling reported at 62 per cent in Sriganganagar. Nearly 49 per cent of the voters exercised their franchise in Jaipur and Jaipur Rural constituencies, while the turnout was the lowest at 37 per cent in Jalore.

Thirty-three-year-old Netram Meena was killed and another person, Hemraj Meena, injured when Central Industrial Security Force personnel fired on the stone-throwing mob which was earlier prevented from casting votes without identity cards. Netram’s body was handed over to the next of his kin after post-mortem.

Union Minister Namonarain Meena of the Congress is pitted in a keen contest for the Tonk-Sawai Madhopur seat against Kirori Singh Bainsla of the Bharatiya Janata Party.Six persons were injured in a clash between the rival Gujjar and Meena communities outside the Bhaglai polling booth in Dausa constituency. Musclemen in the village allegedly stormed into the booth and forcibly cast four-dozen votes.

Additional Director-General of Police Kanhaiya Lal said the veteran Meena leader and Independent candidate from Dausa, Kirorilal Meena, had registered a case against some Gujjars for causing injury in his leg by throwing stones. His supporters fired in the air when Gujjars allegedly attacked them.

Dr. Meena, accompanied by his supporters, staged a dharna at Kotwali police station in Dausa with the demand for immediate action against Gujjars and also lodged a complaint against Independent candidate Qamar Rabbani Chechi, hailing from Jammu and Kashmir, accusing him of submitting a fake caste certificate to contest from the constituency reserved for Scheduled Tribes.

Mr. Zutshi said there were about 14 booths across the State where the polling process was disrupted due to various malpractices, necessitating re-polling. The dates for re-polling will be decided after a comprehensive scrutiny on Friday. These polling stations are situated in the Tonk-Sawai Madhopur, Bharatpur, Karauli-Dholpur, Pali, Jhalawar-Baran, Dausa and Nagaur constituencies.

There were reports of technical snags in the electronic voting machines at several places and 168 of them had to be replaced during the day. The Congress candidate from Jaipur, Mahesh Joshi, was among those who had to wait for some time due to the EVM developing a snag.

The voters collectively boycotted the polling at six places as a mark of protest on issues such as lack of drinking and irrigation water, shortage of power, lack of roads, construction of level crossings on railway lines and illegal allotment of Government land. Mr. Zutshi said no re-polling would be conducted at these booths.

Polling, which was generally slow in the morning, picked up later in the day. A marginal decline in temperature encouraged people to come out and vote. A total of 346 candidates were in the fray expecting support from 37,059,892 voters in the State.

The 42,702 polling booths across the State included six mobile booths in Jaisalmer district. Mr. Zutshi said the polling percentage, calculated on the basis of preliminary figures, had exhibited an “established pattern” as it did not show a significant departure from the 49.97 per cent polling registered in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections.

The Congress is trying to increase its tally from the four seats it won in 2004, while the BJP is making an attempt to hold on to the 21 seats it won then. Rebels, Independents, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the CPI (M) have tried to make a dent in the vote banks of the two major political parties.

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