Andhra Pradesh, which went to simultaneous Lok Sabha Elections as well as state Assembly polls saw some law and order issues on Thursday morning. Apart from reports of dysfunctional Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), there were also incidents of violence and vandalism.
In one incident, A YSRCP leader, Matta Raju was attacked, allegedly by TDP workers at a polling station in Indira Colony High School in West Godavari district’s Eluru constituency. Visuals show a bloodied Raju standing outside the booth.
In another incident, in Narsaraopet constituency in Guntur, TDP candidate Aravindu Babu was allegedly attacked by YSRCP workers. Workers from both parties started throwing stones at each other, after which police had to resort to lathi charge to restore calm.
Meanwhile, a Jana Sena candidate was arrested for damaging an EVM machine in the Guntakal Assembly constituency in Anantapur district. Madhusudan Gupta, the Jana Sena candidate, hurled the EVM machine on the floor at the polling station because the names of the Assembly and Parliament constituencies were not displayed properly on the machine.
“It’s completely bogus, it’s completely wrong. Is it worth voting in such an election? What’s wrong in me breaking this? They are conducting the election so unjustly,” he told the media after breaking the machine.
After a furious Madhusudan threw the EVM machine on the floor, damaging it, he was immediately arrested, police said.
#WATCH Jana Sena MLA candidate Madhusudhan Gupta smashes an Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) at a polling booth in Gooty, in Anantapur district. He has been arrested by police. #AndhraPradesh pic.twitter.com/VoAFNdA6Jo
— ANI (@ANI) April 11, 2019
Andhra has over 3.93 crore voters who will decide the fortunes of 319 candidates for 25 Lok Sabha seats and 2,118 candidates in 175 Assembly seats. Authorities have set up 46,120 polling stations, of which 9,000 booths are considered sensitive. 566 Flying Squad teams, 466 Static Surveillance Teams (SST) and 5,171 mobile teams have been deployed by the Election Commission, to implement the Model Code of Conduct and to carry out polling smoothly. 368 check posts have also been set up across the state.