India election: a death, a bomb and voting machine malfunctions mar first day of polls

Country begins mammoth election process in which up to 900 million people are eligible to cast a ballot

At least one politician has been killed in a dispute over a state assembly vote, while Maoist rebels have been blamed for a bomb near a polling booth

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Indians wait to cast their votes in Uttar Pradesh. Photo: AP

Published: 10:25pm, 11 Apr 2019Updated: 2:05am, 12 Apr 2019

A politician was killed and another arrested as violence marred the first day of voting in India’s mammoth general election on Thursday.

As voters across 91 constituencies lined up to give their verdict on whether the Hindu nationalist government of Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) should return for a second five-year stint in power, a bomb near a polling booth and hundreds of complaints about malfunctioning electronic voting machines further sullied proceedings.

More than 140 million of the country’s nearly 900 million-strong electorate were eligible to vote on the first day of a seven-phase polling exercise that will culminate on May 23 with the declaration of results for all 543 Lok Sabha, or House of the People, seats. Ninety-one seats were up for grabs on the first day of voting.

Meanwhile, elections for state assemblies were being held simultaneously in Odisha, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh and in Andhra Pradesh, where the highly-charged proceedings saw a member of the ruling Telugu Desam Party killed, and a Jana Sena party candidate arrested for destroying an electronic voting machine after an argument with polling officials.

Chinta Bhaskar Reddy died after a clash with YSR Congress Party members in Tadipatri state assembly constituency of Anantapur district. Some YSRCP members were also injured in the clash.

India election: a death, a bomb and voting machine malfunctions mar first day of polls

Country begins mammoth election process in which up to 900 million people are eligible to cast a ballot At least one politician has been killed in a dispute over a state assembly vote, while Maoist rebels have been blamed for a bomb near a polling booth

Country begins mammoth election process in which up to 900 million people are eligible to cast a ballot

At least one politician has been killed in a dispute over a state assembly vote, while Maoist rebels have been blamed for a bomb near a polling booth