This Article is From Apr 11, 2019

At UP Booth, Shots Fired In The Air As People With No Voter IDs Turn Up

Lok Sabha Elections 2019: Around 25 to 30 people without proper documentation turned up to cast their votes at a polling station in Shamli, which falls in the Kairana parliamentary constituency.

Security forces fired shots in the air at a polling station in Shamli in Kairana.

Kairana:

There was tension at a polling station in Uttar Pradesh's Kairana after security forces fired in the air after several people reportedly turned up to vote without voter identity cards.

No one was injured in the firing and the voting has resumed.

Around 25 to 30 people without proper documentation turned up to cast their votes at a polling station in Shamli, which falls in the Kairana parliamentary constituency. When they refused to leave the polling station, security forces opened fire. Police also had to baton charge the people.

"BSF personnel fired in the air for security reasons after some people. without voter ID, tried to cast vote. Voting has resumed now," the District Magistrate of Shamli was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

Kairana and seven other seats in western Uttar Pradesh - Saharanpur, Muzaffarnagar, Bijnor, Meerut, Baghpat, Ghaziabad and Gautam Buddha Nagar - are voting in the first of the seven phases in the Lok Sabha election. Uttar Pradesh, which has 80 parliamentary seats, will see polling in all seven phases of the Lok Sabha election. 

In Kairana, the Samajwadi Party is fielding Tabassum Hasan, the sitting lawmaker from the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), as a joint candidate of the Akhilesh Yadav-Mayawati-Ajit Singh combine. Ms Hasan had won the Kairana Lok Sabha by-election last year when she contested on an RLD ticket and as a joint candidate of the opposition.

Kairana, 119 km from Delhi, became a test case for a successful opposition collaboration to defeat the BJP in its own seat.

For the BJP, Kairana  holds immense significance as it was defeated in the Lok Sabha by-election last year.

(With inputs from ANI)

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