Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Lok Sabha constituency Varanasi recorded 56.35% voter turnout in the seventh and final phase of the parliamentary general election on Saturday, according to a communique by the district election officer.
The Saturday’s turnout fell short of the 57.13% mark recorded in the 2019 polls and 58.35% voting witnessed in 2014 in Varanasi.
Besides Modi, the electoral fate of six other candidates was locked in electronic voting machines in Varanasi as voting concluded smoothly. As many as 41 candidates were in the fray against Modi in 2014 whereas 26 contested against him in 2019.
Voting started in Varanasi slowly and picked up pace by noon. Elderly people and first-time voters were among those who participated in the festival of democracy. Long queues of voters were seen at polling booths since morning.
Sikkim governor Laxman Acharya cast his vote at a polling booth in Ramnagar. Uttar Pradesh ministers Ravindra Jaiswal, Dayashankar Mishra “Dayalu” and Anil Rajbhar exercise their franchise at polling booths in their respective areas.
Arrangements like drinking water, shades, volunteers, and wheelchairs for divyang voters and elderly voters have been made, Varanasi district magistrate S Rajalingam said
{{/usCountry}}Arrangements like drinking water, shades, volunteers, and wheelchairs for divyang voters and elderly voters have been made, Varanasi district magistrate S Rajalingam said
{{/usCountry}}In view of heatwave, arrangements for ORS packets were made for polling staff and security personnel in Varanasi, Chandauli and Mirzapur.
Coolers were also arranged at some booths in the city area to give relief to the voters.
Rajalingam and his wife cast their votes at a booth in a primary school in the Cantt area. Varanasi commissioner of police Mohit Agarwal also cast his vote. Divisional commissioner Kaushal Raj Sharma and his family members exercised their franchise at a polling booth in JP Mehta Inter College.
Banaras Hindu University cardiologist Prof Om Shankar, who observed a 20-day hunger strike to press his demand to give entire fourth floor and half of the fifth floor in super specialty building of Sir Sundar Lal Hospital, IMS-BHU, to the department of cardiology, also exercised his franchise. He said that he cast his vote for right to health and equality.
There are 19,97,577 voters in Varanasi. Voting was held at 1909 polling booths of 660 polling centres in the constituency.
The seven candidates in fray from this seat are Prime Minister Narendra Modi-BJP, Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee president Ajay Rai of the INDIA bloc, Athar Jamal Lari of the Bahujan Samaj Party, Gagan Prakash Yadav-Apna Dal (Kamerawadi), Kolishetti Shivkumar-Yug Tulsi Party, Sanjay Kumar Tiwari (Independent) and Dinesh Kumar Yadav (Independent).
Ajay Rai, who finished third against PM Modi twice in a row in 2014 and 2019, is contesting the election on the Indian National Congress symbol.
Voting passed off peacefully in Mirzapur, said superintendent of police, Mirzapur Abhinandan. He said no report of any untoward incident or complaint was received in the constituency.
In Ghazipur, Jammu and Kashmir lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha exercised his franchise. In Mirzapur, Union minister Anupriya Patel cast her vote. In Ballia, BJP candidate Neeraj Shekhar, and SP leader and former minister Ambika Chaudhary cast their votes.