Do not carry your mobile phones to polling booths: AIMIM
The Hindu
AIMIM urges voters to leave mobile phones at home to prevent low polling percentages and ensure votes are cast.
The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen has urged the electors not to carry their mobile phones with them to polling booths, and expressed apprehensions that they would return without casting their vote if no storage space was found.
Party leaders, including Hyderabad candidate Asaduddin Owaisi, urged the public at various public meetings to leave their phones at home and cast their vote. They recounted instances from previous elections that voters left polling stations once they realised phones were not allowed inside.
Party leaders said that they are cognisant of the fact that voters tend to store documents such as various proofs of identity on their mobile phones. Despite this, they have been urging them to carry original documents on their person to the polling booth.
In its campaign the AIMIM underscored how low polling percentages could affect the elections. A key reason for the party urging voters not to carry mobile phones on their person to ensure polling percentages do not take a beating.
Sitting MP and DMK ally IUML’s candidate K. Navas Kani registered a remarkable victory from Ramanathapuram Lok Sabha constituency on Tuesday. While Mr. Navas Kani polled 5,09,664 votes, O. Panneerselvam, Independent candidate supported by the BJP, bagged 3,42,882 votes, AIADMK candidate Jayaperumal secured 99,780 votes and Naam Tamilar Katchi candidate Dr. Chandra Prabha Jeyapaul bagged 97,672 votes. As many as 6,275 voters pressed NOTA button.
Hailed as the “hrudayavanta” (man with a kind heart), cardiologist C.N. Manjunath registered a resounding victory by beating the three-time MP, D.K. Suresh, and sending ripples across Bengaluru Rural seat, a bastion strongly controlled by Mr. Suresh and his brother Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar.