Kerala is likely to receive heavy rainfall today and tomorrow. (PTI)
Heavy rainfall battered many parts of the country on Monday, throwing normal life out of gear and disrupting electoral activities being taken up as part of the assembly polls in Maharashtra and Haryana - besides by-elections in 17 states and one Union Territory. The bypolls in Kerala were particularly affected by the turn of the weather, forcing many to brave flooded streets and submerged polling booths to cast their votes. Parts of Maharashtra, which voted for its assembly elections, were also hit by heavy rain.
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Heavy rainfall caused a fresh flood scare in parts of Karnataka, with flood water gushing into houses and government buildings across Dharwad, Belagavi, Kalaburagi, Gadag, Vijayapura, Bagalkote, Shivamogga and Chikkamagaluru districts.
Three houses collapsed in Shahpur, a suburb of Belagavi, and inter-village connectivity was hit as rainwater flooded roads in the state. A landslide near Jamboti on the Belagavi-Goa road swept away many cars parked alongside.
Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre director GS Srinivasa Reddy said that the intensity of rainfall and inflow into the Krishna river and its tributaries may increase in the coming days.
Kerala witnessed incessant rainfall from Monday morning, even as voting began in bypolls for five assembly constituencies across the state. People found it difficult to reach polling booths, forcing the voter turnout to dip to a comparative low of 64.99%.
Normal life was severely hit in Ernakulam, with roads - even long stretches of national highways - getting flooded along with houses and shops. Chief Electoral officer Teeka Ram Meena said 10 booths had to be shifted from the ground floor to the first floor of a building due to flooding.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a red alert for four districts - Idukki , Thrissur, Palakkad and Malappuram - for Tuesday. An orange alert has been sounded for nine others.
"Kerala is likely to receive extremely heavy rainfall until October 22, followed by widespread heavy rainfall from October 23 with gradual reduction," said K Santosh, the IMD director in Thiruvananthapuram.
Meanwhile, south Odisha is bracing for heavy to very heavy rainfall in several places from October 23 to 25 due to cyclonic circulation over southwest Bay of Bengal. The districts of Ganjam, Gajapati, Raigarh, Puri, Kandhamal, Nuapara and Balangir are likely to be the worst hit.
Bhubaneswar IMD Director HR Biswas said that while southern Odisha will be initially affected, the rain coverage will extend to its northern districts by October 25. However, no warning has been issued to the fishing community yet.
The IMD has also predicted rainfall and snow across Himachal Pradesh in the coming days. It said that while rain may occur in "isolated places of the mid-hills", others may witness snowfall through October 22 to 24.
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