Sporadic violence and some disappointing turnouts have marred the second day of voting in India’s mammoth general election.
The worst clashes were seen in West Bengal, where rival party activists came to blows, a candidate’s car had its windows smashed and a number of electronic voting machines (EVMs) were broken.
Unlike on day one of the vote, no one was reported to have been killed in the violence. But the clashes, on a day when only three of the state’s 42 constituencies were contested, are likely to lead to increased security measures in the coming weeks.
The clashes in Chopra, Darjeeling meant that scores of people were unable to reach the polling station. Ajay V Nayek, a police official, said across the state polling was “overall peaceful”, and that those who were turned away were later escorted by security forces to cast their ballots.
More than 155 million people were eligible to vote across the 13 states where polling took place on Thursday, and turnouts varied hugely across the country.
In Srinagar, Kashmir, where separatists had called for a boycott of the election, just over 12 per cent of those eligible had cast their votes by 3pm, with only a few hours left before polling closed. That compared to some seats where the number was well over 70 per cent.
A police official told Reuters there had been “at least 40” separate incidents of stone-pelting directed at the security forces, who are ubiquitous in the valley at the best of times and were on high alert for the day’s voting.
Police deployed tear gas and baton charges in downtown Srinagar as protesters tried to disrupt the vote, officials said. At most polling booths, armed security personnel and election officials vastly outnumbered voters.
Away from those hotspots, however, the day’s voting appeared to pass without serious incident. In Manipur, voters complained that chief minister N Biren Singh turned up in the afternoon and jumped the queue - reportedly skipping past some people who had been waiting since 7am.
And at a Delhi press conference to announce a BJP candidate for a later phase, a protester pelted the ruling party’s spokesman and MP GVL Narasimha Rao with shoes. Rao immediately dismissed his assailant, who was bundled out by security, as being “Congress-inspired”.
Here’s the run-through of the day’s election events, as they happened.
The focus today will be on the southern states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, with #TNElection2019 already the top trend across India on Twitter.
All of Tamil Nadu's 39 seats, and half of Karnataka's 28, will be decided today.
The south is a key region where the main opposition Congress party and its allies need to win big if they hope to have any chance of ousting Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
"If the non-BJP parties perform well in these two states, then they would still be having a chance of forming a non-BJP government at the centre," Sanjay Kumar, director of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies in Delhi, told Reuters.
Critics say such divisive election rhetoric is a threat to India's secular foundations.
"Communal polarisation is obviously the biggest issue for me," said Rakesh Mehar, who voted in Karnataka's capital, Bengaluru. "And the growing intolerance in the country is what worries me the most."
While it is being seen as a referendum on Mr Modi's first five years in office, this election is not just about what is going on with the central government.
Voters in Bengaluru, once a sleepy retirement town that has been transformed into India's technology hub, said they wanted lawmakers who would fix infrastructure problems such as traffic congestion and poor water management.
"We have been voting every time expecting a change but nothing has come so far. People are talking about national issues," Manjunath Munirathnappa told Reuters. "But only when they fix the local issues will there be progress in the nation."
His party accused federal tax authorities of raiding the homes and offices of party leaders running against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist party. The governing party in the state, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), is an ally of Modi's party.
The Election Commission said that authorities had recovered 2 billion rupees (£22m) from leaders, workers and supporters of various political parties in the state in the past month. They suspect the money is for buying votes.
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