Voting was held on 13 seats in the second phase of Lok Sabha elections in the state. While the first phase was peaceful, incidents like protests and fighting also took place at many places in the second phase on Friday. Voting ended at 6 pm, but for those who were in the queue, voting continued for about an hour later. Also, at some places voting continued till around 8 pm. After voting, the ballot boxes have been kept in the respective districts, where they will be kept under tight security till June 4. According to the Election Commission of India, 64.56 percent voting took place in Rajasthan till evening. Of these, 64.07 percent votes were cast through EVMs and 0.49 percent votes were cast through board postal ballot. Although the final voting figures will be released by Saturday afternoon, it is believed that the voting in the second phase will be between 65 to 66 percent. The reason for this is that the voting percentage always increases in the last one hour.
In the second phase, voting took place in Jodhpur, Barmer, Pali, Jalore, Rajsamand, Ajmer, Bhilwara, Chittorgarh, Udaipur, Banswara, Tonk-Sawai Madhopur, Kota, Jhalawar-Baran seats. In Barmer, supporters of independent candidate Ravindra Singh Bhati and Congress candidate Umedaram Beniwal clashed. During this, there was an altercation between Baytu MLA Harish Chaudhary and IG Vikas Kumar. BJP candidate Sukhbir Singh Jaunapuriya from Tonk-Sawai Madhopur seat created ruckus over fake voting. At the same time, people beat up the constable who was making a video of the polling booth in Pipar, Jodhpur. EVMs remained closed for two hours in Pali, due to which voters had to face problems. At the same time, an elderly man died while coming to cast his vote in Pur town of Bhilwara. Voters arrived in Pratapgarh in boats to cast their votes. In Jodhpur, the atmosphere at the polling booth became heated after a scuffle with Abhimanyu Singh, son of Congress candidate Karan Singh Uchiyarda. Alleged that he had reached the polling booth of BJS.
There was a scuffle with him here. On information, Karan Singh and his supporters gathered there in large numbers. Seeing the increasing dispute, police force has also been deployed there. After this controversy, Karan Singh, his son and supporters sat on strike at the booth in BJS. In fact, at around 6.45 pm, Harsh Vardhan, son of Jodhpur’s Lok Sabha candidate Karan Singh Uchirada, stopped a person on suspicion of being a fake voter at the polling booth of Girls School located at BJS. Uchiyarda alleged that after this BJP workers made a fatal attack on Harsh Vardhan. On information, Congress workers reached there along with Karan Singh and created a ruckus. Police took action and detained one BJP worker and arrested another. Demanding the arrest of BJP workers involved in the attack, Uchirada said – I will remain on fast unto death until the police arrests all the accused. At the same time, BJP workers also created a ruckus and demanded to remove the dharna from the polling booth, demanding the release of the arrested worker.
Due to strong storm in Malpura on Tonk-Sawaimadhopur seat, lights went out at booth number 128 in the evening. Due to which it became dark. Since there was no alternative arrangement, voting was conducted here in torchlight. However, even in the light of torches, the morale of the voters did not diminish nor did the polling personnel allow the voting to stop.
