Oldest male, female cast vote
Chandigarh, April 19: At the age of 118, Dharamveer of Palwal district is Haryana’s oldest male voter while Balbir Kaur of Sirsa, aged 117 years, is the oldest female voter, Chief Electoral Officer Anurag Agarwal said on Friday. Haryana has more than 1.99 crore voters who are eligible to cast their vote for the 10 Lok Sabha seats where the polls will be held in the sixth phase of the general elections on May 25. “Dharamveer of Palwal district is the oldest voter in Haryana at 118 years. Similarly, Balbir Kaur of Sirsa district is 117 years old, Bhagwani of Sonipat district is 116 years old while Lakkhishek of Panipat district is 115 years old,” Agarwal said, according to an official statement here. (PTI)
Women throng ‘pink booths’
Doda/Jammu, April 19: Amid multi-tier security arrangements, ‘Nari Shakti’ (women power) was on display at the all-women staffed booths known as ‘pink booths’, in the Doda district of the Udhampur Lok Sabha constituency. These ‘pink booths’ attracted more women voters, especially from the Muslim community. More than 22 per cent of voters exercised their franchise in the first four hours of polling in the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections in Jammu and Kashmir’s Udhampur parliamentary constituency despite torrential rains, election officials said. As polling began this morning, a large number of women electors thronged the ‘pink booth’ set up at the Government Girls’ Higher Secondary School in the Doda town to exercise their right to franchise despite heavy rains. Queued up in long lines, they were happy to vote at the ‘pink booth’. (PTI)
World’s tiniest woman votes
Nagpur, April 19: Heads turned and people smiled as the world’s shortest woman, Jyoti Kishanji Amge, turned up to cast her vote in the Lok Sabha elections, here on Friday morning. A beaming but tad shy, Jyoti – who is all of 62.8 cm (2 feet, ¾ inch) tall – arrived with her family members carrying her in arms to avoid the huge crowds at the polling station in a school near her home. As soon as she reached the venue, attired in a glowing red Barbie-style dress, wearing blood-red lipstick and some trinkets on her fingers and wrists, the paparazzi virtually mobbed her till she entered the polling booth, giggling at all the commotion and attention lavished on her. (IANS)
World’s highest polling station in Himachal has 52 voters
Shimla, April 19: World’s highest polling station Tashigang, located at a height of 15,256 feet above sea level, in Himachal Pradesh’s Lahaul-Spiti district, which is part of the Mandi parliamentary constituency, has 52 registered voters, said Assistant Election Officer Harsh Negi on Friday. There were 45 voters in Tashigang in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Of these, 27 were men and 18 women voters. In the 2021 Mandi parliamentary by-elections, there were 48 voters, which included 29 men and 22 women. And in the 2022 assembly elections, there were 52 voters comprising 30 men and 22 women. Tashigang in the Spiti Valley remains covered with snow for six months in a year. There is a shortage of oxygen there. Before 2019, the highest polling station was Hikkim (14,400 feet) located close to Tashigang. But in 2019, Tashigang was made a polling station. For years, Hikkam (14,400 feet), close to Tashigang, was one of the highest polling booths. (IANS)
63,100 bottles of indelible ink to be used in Kerala polls
Thiruvananthapuram, April 19: With Kerala all set to go to the polls on April 26, Chief Election Officer Sanjay Kaul on Friday said that a total of 63,100 bottles of indelible ink to be used across the 25,231 polling booths have arrived. The CEO said that the cost of the ink, sourced from the Karnataka government-owned Mysore Paints and Varnish Ltd, is Rs 1.30 crore. Each bottle of ink contains 10 ml and can be used for 700 voters. According to the final voters’ list, there are 2,77,49,159 voters who will elect 20 new Lok Sabha members. (IANS)
Officials suspended for allowing CPI-M leader help woman cast her vote
Thiruvananthapuram, April 19: Kannur District Election Officer (DEO) on Friday suspended five poll officials for dereliction of duty after it was found that a CPI-M polling agent helped a 92-year-old woman cast her vote from home. According to the election rules, voters above the age of 85 can vote from their homes. The incident took place on Thursday at the residence of Devi (92), which falls under Booth No. 164 in the Kasargod Lok Sabha constituency in Kannur district. In some visuals that have surfaced, local CPI-M leader Ganeshan could be seen helping the woman cast her vote. As per the rules, polling agents of any party cannot assist voters in exercising their franchise. The suspension came after a probe conducted by an election official reported that there was dereliction of duty by the five election officials, as the secrecy to be maintained during voting was breached. (IANS)