Andhra Pradesh elections 2019: Jana Sena candidate Madhusudan Gupta broke an EVM.
Highlights
- Jana Sena Party candidate threw an EVM on the floor in Guntakal
- Madhusudan Gupta was angry after names of seats weren't displayed clearly
- Andhra Pradesh voting to elect 175 assembly and 25 Lok Sabha members
A Jana Sena Party candidate in Andhra Pradesh was arrested on Thursday after he broke an Electronic Voting Machine or EVM on Thursday as polling for the Lok Sabha and assembly elections began in the state.
Madhusudan Gupta threw the EVM on the floor at a polling station in the Guntakal Assembly constituency of Anantapur district, the police said.
Mr Gupta, who had come to cast his vote at the polling station in Gutti, was angry with the polling staff over names of assembly and parliament constituencies not being displayed properly, news agency IANS reported.
In a video of the incident, he is seen lifting the EVM and throwing it on the floor. The machine was damaged in the incident. Mr Gupta was immediately arrested, the police added.
Voters is underway at polling stations in Andhra Pradesh to elect 175 assembly and 25 Lok Sabha members.
According to news agency PTI, there have been reports of glitches in EVMs resulting in delays in polling in many places. Clashes broke out at various places Thursday between workers of the ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and opposition YSR Congress (YSRC).
A mandal parishad member of YSRC was seriously injured when TDP workers allegedly attacked him at a polling station in Eluru city.
In Jammalamadugu in Kadapa district, unrest was reported in Ponnathota village as YSRC and TDP workers threw stones at each other.
Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and his family members cast their votes at a polling station in Undavalli village in the state capital region Amaravati.
Talking to reporters, the Chief Minister referred to technical glitches in EVMs and said he was demanding that ballot papers be re-introduced.
"No developed country is using EVMs as they are prone to manipulation. We have hence been demanding that we revert to the ballot paper system," Mr Naidu said.
State Chief Electoral Officer Gopal Krishna Dwivedi cast his vote in Tadepalli and said there were complaints about technical glitches in EVMs in about 50 places but they have been addressed,
There are nearly four crore registered voters in the state of whom about 10 lakh are first-time voters between 18 and 19 years of age.
As many as 2,118 and 319 candidates are in the contest for 175 Assembly and 25 Lok Sabha seats respectively.
Polling will end at 5 pm in the Left-wing extremism-affected areas, mostly those bordering Odisha and Chhattisgarh.
(With inputs from IANS and PTI)